University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
university in Vienna, Austria
The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (German: Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 in Vienna. With a student body of over 3,000, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of the largest in the world.
In 1817, it was established by the Society for the Friends of Music. It has had several names: Vienna Conservatory, Vienna Academy and in 1909 it was nationalized as the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts. In 1998, the University assumed its current name to reflect its university status, attained in a wide-ranging 1970 reform for Austrian Arts Academies.
The university
With a student body of more than 3000, the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien (MDW) is one of the largest arts universities in the world. The University consists of 25 departments including the Max Reinhardt Seminar, Vienna Film Academy and the Wiener Klangstil.
MDW facilities include the Schönbrunn Palace Theater, Antonio Vivaldi Room, Salesian Convent, St. Ursula Church, Lothringerstrasse (Franz Liszt Room) and the Anton Von Webern Platz (university main campus). Modern film studios were completed on the university campus in 2004, offering the Vienna Film Academy modern equipment.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna” as university in Vienna, Austria. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as university in Vienna, Austria. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q686522. VIAF identifies the subject as 168206506. The Library of Congress control number is no00035649. Authority coordinates are 48.202, 16.385. 6 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1817, 1909, 1998 and 1970.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna”, its source revision and the description used here.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.