The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG) is an internationally renowned place of education - 17 institutes and two doctoral schools offer highly qualified training for artistic and scientific professions. Owing to its geographic situation, it knows to combine perfectly Austrian tradition in music and performing arts with the creative potential of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
With its consequently realized leitmotif, i.e., “Open for the New by Tradition,” its focus on contemporary arts and its unique living symbiosis between the arts and science, KUG has been able to shape its profile among universities in Europe.
The thirteen disciplines, i.e., Stage Design, Performing Art (Drama), Composition and Music Theory, Conducting, Voice, Music Education – Voice and Instruments (IGP), Instrumental Studies, Jazz – the oldest academic place of education in Europe –, Catholic and Protestant Church Music, Music Education / Music Education – Instruments, Electrical Engineering – Sound Engineering (together with the University of Technology Graz), Musicology (in cooperation with the University of Graz), the Artistic and the Scientific Doctoral Study Program concentrate on essentials in the arts and science.
KUG combines the development and unfolding of the arts (artistic research) and research with university education. Compared to other universities worldwide, the scientific aspect of education is quite well developed and benefits from the vivid practice of music. On the other hand, artists benefit from scientific reflection. A functional and state-of-the-art infrastructure and numerous guest lectures, workshops, and possibilities to appear in public, allow us to design studies in the best possible way.
The artistic and scientific activities of some 500 renowned teachers interact directly with teaching and ensure excellent and practice-oriented education this way. Owing to this highly qualified personal attention, KUG can look back on a long list of very successful graduates. At KUG, students and teachers are considered partners in a standard cognitive process that animates the concept of “education through the arts and science.”
Moreover, KUG supports the new generation of artists and scientists by opening up realistic job opportunities and career possibilities. To this end, the University’s own Career Service Center (CSC) had played a significant role since autumn 2008.
Our students from abroad (approx. 45 percent) foster an intercultural diversity and, as a result, a creative climate at KUG. The lively activities encouraging international development and unfolding of the arts (artistic research), and the strong commitment concerning institutionalized contacts to foreign countries follow the conviction that the arts will gain intensity if they leave their national bonds.
KUG does not only see itself as a place of education but also as a promoter of the arts. Among other things, this is noticeable to the broad public through subscription cycles, international competitions, and the CD series “Klangdebüts” with recordings made just by students.
Every year, students perform in more than 1,300 events ranging from in-class presentations, drama performances, jazz, chamber music, and orchestra concerts to operas. Consequently, KUG has established itself as a vivid part of cultural life in Graz. To this end, it disposes of function rooms like historic “Florentinersaal,” multi-purpose “Theater im Palais” (T.i.P.), and the avant-garde “CUBE,” for instance.
Since early 2009, KUG has been able to use MUMUTH, the House of Music and Music Theatre, as a new building for classes and events. This architecturally and acoustically extraordinary building allows us to improve practice-oriented education even more.
The University Library is a unique library open to the public for free. After the presentation of a valid ID and registration form, users will receive a library ticket. With this ticket, users are authorized to use the collections in the room and to borrow them. The university library sees itself as a service provider offering an attractive infrastructure both in terms of collections and use. In the main, UBKUG procures all information carriers necessary for teaching and research and arts-based research. As for the structure of collections, the university library orientates itself by the strategic goals of KUG.
Arts-based research can be understood as a counterpart to scientific research. In an international context, the concept of “artistic research” is sometimes used, juxtaposed to the concept of “scientific research.”
Arts-based research focuses, in particular, on the gain of knowledge and the development of methods. This concept differs basically from academic disciplines such as literature, history of art, and musicology, which research into the arts with scientific methods. Arts-based research uses artistic methods that interact between artistic work and its reflection. Therefore, it primarily stands for the production of knowledge supported by a diversity of methods.
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