Oliver Vitouch chosen to lead Vienna’s music university

Oliver Vitouch has been unanimously chosen as rector of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, ORF reported. He will succeed Ulrike Sych in October 2027.

The 55-year-old was selected by the university’s council, which praised his experience in Austria’s university system, his plans for the institution’s future and his understanding of art and music.

“It is a great privilege to take over the leadership of such a remarkable institution,” Vitouch said. He added that Sych and her team would hand over a university that was exceptionally well run. The mdw, as the university is known, is a world-class institution across all its disciplines, he said.

Vitouch is a psychology professor and serves on the board of trustees of ISTA in Klosterneuburg and the executive committee of the Austrian Research Association. He chaired the senate at the University of Klagenfurt from 2006 to 2012 and was its rector from 2012 to 2024.

He also studied clarinet and piano at the Vienna City Conservatory, now the MUK, and later specialised in music psychology, a subject in which he completed his habilitation at the University of Vienna.

The mdw has about 3,000 students from 72 countries and offers 147 programmes in music, performing arts, science, research and education. It also includes the Max Reinhardt Seminar and the Vienna Film Academy.