The anniversary exhibition presents, for the first time, a panorama of the estates preserved at the Exilarte Center of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, offering insight into the lives, works, and legacy of composers who were persecuted and marginalized. At the same time, it situates their creative output within its historical context and highlights its significance for contemporary research and cultures of remembrance.
The Exilarte Center preserves, researches, and makes accessible to the public the estates of numerous musicians whose lives were shaped by persecution, displacement, exile, or murder during the National Socialist era. The collection encompasses composers, performers, conductors, musicologists, as well as dancers and theatre practitioners whose artistic careers were violently disrupted or forced into exile. Many of them went on to shape the musical landscapes of their host countries, while others fell into obscurity after 1945 and are only now being rediscovered through the work of Exilarte.
These biographies reveal a multifaceted panorama of European music history in exile: from composers trained in Vienna who went on to revolutionise film music in Hollywood, to conductors who founded new orchestras overseas, to music educators, theorists, and performers who left a lasting mark on cultural life in Great Britain, the United States, Latin America, Israel, Australia, and Asia. At the same time, many of these life stories stand for the irretrievable loss of artistic potential caused by disenfranchisement, internment, material hardship, or murder in concentration camps.
The estates held at the Exilarte Center therefore document not only individual artistic biographies, but also offer a broader perspective on the global consequences of displacement and persecution for the music of the twentieth century. They demonstrate how European musical traditions were transformed in exile and what new cultural impulses emerged from experiences of loss and new beginnings. At the same time, they point to the long period of silence after 1945, during which many of these works and names disappeared from collective memory.
The anniversary exhibition builds upon this unique biographical archive. Through selected life stories, it conveys the diversity, scope, and contemporary relevance of the legacy of exile, linking personal destinies with broader historical and musicological contexts. In doing so, it makes a vital contribution to remembrance culture, historical responsibility, and the sustained visibility of suppressed cultural history.
The duration of the exhibition is from 16.04. – 20.12.2026
Opening hours are:
Wednesday – Friday: 15:00 – 19:00
Saturday: 13:00 – 17:00
Closed on public holidays.
Free admission!
