Maria Kalesnikava awarded honorary professorship in person
In recognition of her activities in the name of social freedom and fundamental democratic values, the Mozarteum University awarded Maria Kalesnikava an honorary professorship as part of the long-term project ‘Practicing Care – A Care Network at an Arts University’. After a long wait, Maria Kalesnikava was able to accept her honorary professorship in person on 5 October. She had already been awarded the honorary professorship by the Mozarteum University in autumn 2022, in her absence.
In her speech, Kalesnikava described how she found out about the award. "I found out about the honorary professorship through a letter from my sister. It was the last message I received. After that, no more letters came. That letter connected me to my family, to music and to people outside the prison walls. It reminded me that people were thinking of me and that I still belonged to this world.”
The award ceremony took place as part of the opening of the new academic year, which was attended by students, lecturers and staff at the Mozarteum University.
Maria Kalesnikava, a Belarusian flautist, cultural manager and civil rights activist born in Minsk in 1982, studied the flute and conducting at the State Academy of Music in Minsk, as well as early and contemporary music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. She has been active in various ensembles, taught in Belarus and Germany, worked on numerous transnational music projects and, in 2019, became artistic director of the ‘OK-16’ cultural centre in Minsk. Following the arrest of the opposition politician Viktar Babaryka, she stood in his place in the 2020 presidential election campaign in Belarus. Following the election, which cemented Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime but was regarded internationally and by large sections of Belarusian society as a sham, Kalesnikava, as a leading figure in the Belarusian opposition, continued to campaign for causes including free elections and women’s rights in Belarus. In September 2020, she was arrested, abducted and, a year later, sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony. After almost five years in detention, Kalesnikava was released from prison in December 2025, along with 122 other political prisoners.
