The symposium The Viennese Ball Season of 1938 at the Crossroads of Hope and Despair, Escape and Exile on October 29th, 2025 explores the cultural and political significance of the last Viennese ball season before Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany.
Inspired by a rediscovered souvenir from the Caro & Jellinek company ball scheduled for March 12, 1938, the event—organized in cooperation with the Exilarte Center of the mdw – University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna —examines how music and dance reflected identity, resistance, and farewell on the eve of exile. With scholarly lectures, a seminar, and a staged reading, it highlights the life of composer Leonhard Märker and the role of music in exile and internment. Featuring scholarly contributions by Emily Marker, Mélina Burlaud, Marie-Theres Arnbom, Dietmar Friesenegger, and Gerold Gruber, and musical performances by Romana Amerling, Clemens Seewald and Ulrike Anton, the symposium links research, teaching, and artistic practice in an innovative form of remembrance culture.
This will be followed by a staged reading, accompanied by music from the ball.
Free admission to the symposium and staged reading! No registration required.
Thursday, December 19, 2024, 7:30 p.m. Franz Liszt Hall of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 (3rd floor) 1030 Vienna
Artists:
Motus Quartet
In conversation:
Geoffrey Hudson talks about his teacher Richard Hoffmann.
The exhibition in the Exilarte Center of the mdw, which opened in March 2024 and is dedicated to three Austrian composers exiled by the Nazis, celebrates its crowning conclusion with a finissage with music and narration.
The focus of this “triangle” was on the teacher-student relationship. Alexander Zemlinsky was Arnold Schönberg’s teacher; In the USA, the country of exile, Arnold Schönberg taught Richard Hoffmann, who in turn familiarized further generations with the tradition of the 2nd Viennese School.
As a special guest this evening we welcome the American composer and choral conductor Geoffrey Hudson, who studied with Richard Hoffmann at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio and who will share with us memories of his esteemed professor. Musically, we expand the triangle to a square and hear a movement for string quartet by Alexander Zemlinsky, Arnold Schönberg, Richard Hoffmann and Geoffrey Hudson; performed by the Motus Quartet.
Courage – Music in Resistance Against National Socialism I June 3rd, 2024
The Exilarte Center makes what has been silenced resonate again and makes what has been forgotten visible again.
During the dark times of National Socialism, using music to send a sign of resistance was for many Jewish composers the only way to accuse, rebel or find hope again in desperate situations. Many of them were persecuted, murdered or forced into exile. But their works, which were sometimes created under the most adverse circumstances, still bear witness to unparalleled courage and remind us of the power that music radiates. Music helped to survive and endure what was immediately happening. But the sounds created also made it possible to denounce the injustice of the perpetrators with hidden musical messages. Viktor Ullmann composed his Emperor of Atlantis in the Theresienstadt ghetto, mercilessly holding up a mirror to the terror regime before he was murdered in Auschwitz; Herbert Zipper secretly wrote a resistance song in the Dachau concentration camp and Hans Gál ironically presented the morning wake-up call in the internment camp in Great Britain as a refugee in his Huyton Suite. Some of the still undiscovered works from this program are in the archives of the Exilarte Center of the mdw.
An event in collaboration with Puskas International, Exilarte – Center for Persecuted Music, Boosey & Hawkes, Austrian-Czech Society, Czech Center Vienna and Czech Embassy in Vienna.
Jonathan Powell places Winterberg in the context of Czech piano music and builds a bridge between Czech and Viennese traditions of the 1920s and 30s. The highlight of the recital is the premiere of Winterberg’s 4th piano sonata. Afterwards, an international panel discussion will examine Winterberg’s biography, work and the rediscovery of his legacy against the background of the historical developments of the 20th century.
In conversation:
Petr Brod (journalist, Prague) Gerold Gruber (Exilarte Center, Vienna) Frank Harders-Wuthenow (Boosey & Hawkes, Berlin) Lubomir Spurný (Masaryk University, Brno)
SPECIAL EVENTS as part of the ORF Long Night of Museums
1) “The songwriting of Erich Wolfgang Korngold”, lecture with music (start: 6:15 p.m.)
Opening: Gerold Gruber, head of the Exilarte Center
Kurt Arrer has been intensively involved with the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and his father Julius Korngold for decades. He is considered an expert in the field of transferring Julius Korngold’s difficult-to-read script. The lecture by the contemporary historian Arrer will be dedicated to the composer’s songwriting. Accompanying the lecture, singersArabella Fenyves and Josipa Bainacwill interpret works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold with pianist David Hausknecht.
Every two years a competition takes place in Schwerin that is exclusively dedicated to ostracized music. Exilarte awards a special prize that gives the winners the opportunity to take part in a concert in Vienna. The excellent duo with Ruben Mirzoian (clarinet) and Philipp Thönes(piano) were particularly convincing. They will interpret works by Joseph Horovitz (who died in London last year) and Paul Hindemith, among others.
3) “Tif vi di Nakht” with Ethel Merhaut and friends (start: 10:00 p.m.)
While hits like “That only exists once” or “In der Bar zum Krokodil” became absolute box office hits in Austria and Germany, Yiddish songs like “Glik” and “Zog es mir nokh amol” caused sell-outs in New York in the 1930s theater halls. “Tif wie die Nacht”, named after a tango by Abraham Ellstein, spans a musical arc from Europe to America and connects the German-speaking and Yiddish music scenes of the golden 20s and roaring 30s. Together with her outstanding ensemble, Ethel Merhaut strolls virtuosically between chanson, jazz and swing and takes the audience into the golden era of film and entertainment music. Music by Richard Werner Heymann, Abraham Ellstein, Robert Stolz, Sholom Secunda. Texts by Molly Picon, Fritz Löhner-Beda, Peter Herz, Bella Meissel…
4) Quick tours through the exhibition (from 6:30 p.m.)
The life and work of the famous violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler are presented in the new exhibition at the Exilarte Center with pictures, sheet music, life and sound documents. When the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the star violinist’s performances were accompanied by disruptions and calls for a boycott due to his Jewish origins. His compositions were also no longer played. In September 1939 he immigrated to the USA, where he settled in New York with his wife Harriet.
ENTRY
Tickets can be purchased directly at the Exilarte Center!
Exilarte center of the mdw, Lothringerstraße 18 / 1st floor, 1030 Vienna
Free entry for children up to 12 years*Reduced tickets for schoolchildren, students, senior citizens, people with disabilities, military servants and Ö1 Club members. Please have relevant proof ready on site.
As part of the “Vorahnung” concert, song compositions by the expelled Austrian composer Victor Urbancic will be heard. The compositions, mostly written before he was twenty, are accompanied by texts by his wife Melitta Urbancic, read by Julia Stemberger.
Tuesday , June 6, 2023, 7 PM (EST) University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Franz Liszt Hall (3rd floor) Lothringerstrasse 18, 1030 Vienna
On June 27, 2022 at 5 p.m., the Ukrainian musicologist Prof. Luba Kyyanovska will talk about outstanding Ukrainian musicians and composers who were active in the second half of the 20th century and persecuted by the Stalinist regime.
The lecture will be musically accompanied by singer Zoryana Kushpler and pianist Iryna Nikolayeva.
An event in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.
The lecture will be given in German.
Monday, June 27, 2022 5 p.m. mdw –University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt Hall (3rd floor) 1030 Vienna/Austria
Admission free!
Wearing an FFP2 mask during the event is recommended.
The Exilarte Center at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Cooperation with Toccata Classics.
The Theresienstadt composer Hans Winterberg (1901 – 1991) has only been known to the musical world for a few years. The Exilarte Center is largely responsible for the rediscovery of the composer and will publish a large number of compositions in cooperation with the publishing house Boosey & Hawkes over the next few years.
On her second CD with works by Hans Winterberg, the pianist Brigitte Helbig recorded the Toccata, the First Piano Sonata (1936), the Impressionistische Klavier-Suite, the Suite (1956) and Erinnerungen an Böhmen for Toccata Classics. This new CD will be presented on June 9, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. in the Franz Liszt Hall of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Prof. Dr. Gerold Gruber, chairman of the Exilarte Center, will guide the audience through this exciting evening, where Brigitte Helbig will interpret some of the works she has recorded. Furthermore, Peter Kreitmeir, grandson of Hans Winterberg, will speak about his numerous efforts supporting the work of his grandfather.
CD Presentation: Piano Music by Hans Winterberg (Volume Two), Toccata Classics
Thursday, June 9, 2022 7:30 p.m. mdw –University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt-Saal (3rd floor) 1030 Vienna/Austria
Admission free!
Wearing an FFP2 mask during the event is recommended.
The composer Jan Urban, born in Prague in 1875, spent most of his life among the South Slav regions, initially in the Kingdom of Serbia, after 1918 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and from 1929 until its occupation by the Nazis in 1941 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The declaration of the fascist-run Independent State of Croatia found Urban fleeing the country and returning to Serbia. His best friend, the Jewish conductor Lav Mirsky, together with whom he paved the way for modern Opera and symphonic musical life in Osijek, was deported. Among Jan Urban’s compositions celebrating the Resistance to the Nazis we find Sutjeska and Death of the Hero (Elegy).
Biljana Urban, well-known pianist and granddaughter of Jan Urban, has been advocating for the rediscovery of her grandfather’s works for many years. Her latest project in cooperation with the Exilarte Center at the mdw, which she will present at the Franz Liszt Hall of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna on March 8 & 9, 2022, involves young students from Austria, Serbia, Croatia , Spain and the Netherlands. During the process of preparing for a piano competition the young musicians have thoroughly studied Jan Urban’s oeuvre which they will present in a concert on March 9, 2022. The students will receive additional intensive preparation taking master classes with Biljana Urban.
Biljana Urban will perform works by Jan Urban and Hans Gál in a concert together with singer Annette Fischer and flutist Ulrike Anton on March 8, 2022.
The estate of Jan Urban is located in the archive of the Exilarte Center at the mdw.
Concert with works by Jan Urban and Hans Gál
Biljana Urban, piano Annette Fischer, soprano Ulrike Anton, flute
Tuesday, March 8, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
2G ( vaccinated or recovered) applies!
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt Hall (3rd floor) 1030 Vienna/ Austria
Free admission
Student Performance
With students from Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Spain and the Netherlands
Wednesday, March 9, 2022, 7 p.m.
2G ( vaccinated or recovered) applies!
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt Hall (3rd floor) 1030 Vienna/Austria
