_isa – International Summer Academy of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

isa – International Summer Academy is the summer campus of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. This annual event sees more than 300 students from over 40 nations come together in the Semmering region for two weeks of master classes led by high-calibre instructors. The associated isaFestival presents international stars and top-flight young musicians in over 40 concerts at venues from the Semmering area to Vienna.

isa is 30 – and going hybrid for the first time!

As Aristotle already knew: “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” And with 30 years now under its belt, isa – the International Summer Academy of the mdw is expanding its interdisciplinary canon of programmes (isaMasterclass, isaFestival, isaScience, isaOutreach, isaOperetta) by isaDigital, which premiered in August 2020. This purely digital isa format, originally created as a stopgap measure, generated synergies and brought together participants from numerous countries online and onscreen. So we’re now looking to combine these positive effects of our digital isa20 with the experience we’ve been living for nearly 3 decades, that experience of creative conviviality on location in the Semmering-Rax region, uniting the digital and the analogue realms. The result will be a hybrid overall experience!