News

The Institute for Contemporary Music at Mozarteum University focuses on artistic collaboration, interdisciplinarity in practice and, above all, experimentation.

At the start of the 2026/27 winter semester, Mozarteum University welcomes nine internationally renowned artists and academics to its faculty. The new appointees bring expertise in a range of disciplines, from violin and piano to orchestral conducting and music theory, as well as the teaching of design & technology.

We mourn the loss of one of the most influential figures at our University and, in particular, within the Department of Opera Studies. On 24 September 2026, the renowned conductor, passionate educator and Professor Emeritus Josef Wallnig passed away at the age of 80. With his passing, the world of music and our university community have lost a highly respected advocate for the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

An encounter with an outstanding individual can have a lasting impact on your entire life: a conversation, attending a rehearsal or performance, a walk, an hour spent together – a personal encounter can mean many different things. The International Society of Mozarteum University Salzburg warmly invites you to apply, setting out your reasons for wishing to have such an encounter.

Alumnus and director Alek Niemiro has been honored with several awards for emerging talent, including the 2025 Austrian Art Alumni Award. He wrote his first plays before he began his studies, and his work has taken him from Hamburg to Warsaw, Berlin, Konstanz, and Salzburg, where he staged “Echtzeitalter”—based on the novel by Tonio Schachinger—at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg this spring. A conversation about positive thinking, the blind spots on German-language stages, antiheroes, as well as the ability to compromise and take responsibility.

From September 24 to 26, as part of the “Staging Realities” festival, the Mozarteum University will open the doors of its new X-Reality Lab for the first time—a high-end research facility that systematically breaks down the boundaries between the arts and digital media technology.

Mozart’s music returns to a place closely linked to his own history: musicians from the Bella Musica Ensemble of the Mozarteum University’s Pre-College are currently performing in Rome and at the Vatican under the artistic direction of Stefan David Hummel. A particular highlight of the trip: during a concert - to be recorded live for Vatican Radio - in the Vatican Gardens, Mozart’s music will be performed on two original instruments from the collection of the International Mozarteum Foundation – his famous Dalla Costa violin and his childhood violin.

Two violins from Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s personal collection will accompany this year’s Italian tour of the Bella Musica Pre-College Ensemble of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, conducted by Stefan David Hummel. Mozart’s extraordinary childhood violin and his concert violin, both from the collection of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, will be heard in Rome in September 2026.

From November 27 to 29, 2026, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Department of Fine Arts at the Mozarteum, we would like to trace our shared journey with our graduates, and we warmly invite all alumnae and alumni to join us!

For four intensive weeks, Salzburg once again became an international hub for talented young musicians. Around 500 participants from all over the world took part in the Mozarteum International Summer Academy, working across 50 masterclasses, Young Excellence classes and numerous other programmes under the artistic direction of Hannfried Lucke. Alongside the tuition, public concerts by teaching staff and matinees featuring the prize-winners ensured packed houses throughout.