A different kind of CV
From 1967: professional activities

»From that time on, for the next 40 years, I lived simultaneously in two worlds«

When my parents found out that I wanted to continue studying music after my military service, they tried to make me understand that in their opinion a “musician” could not build a reasonable life and that I should study something “proper”. I did not see this problem – and rightly so, as it turned out later. After a short consideration, however, it was easy for me to comply with her wish and enrolled in the subject “Electrical Engineering” at the Vienna University of Technology – as a kind of reinsurance. This course of study covered practically the entire field of electronics including acoustics and mathematics and, in addition to music, was entirely in line with my interests.

From then on, for the next 40 years, I lived simultaneously in two worlds: that of music and the “fine arts”, which had seemed so desirable to me since my high school days, and the rational, logic-dominated world of science and technology. As it later turned out, this combination had the potential for fruitful synergy effects.

Since a curriculum vitae structured by year would be too confusing due to the simultaneity of the different fields of my activites, the curriculum vitae is divided into artistic, pedagogical, scientific and organizational activities according to the following overview.

I. ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES

This diary page and the further ones give insights, how such a job-related double life can look like. In large orchestras the wind players are always doubled. This means: 2 persons share the daily orchestra services.

From left to right: 1st column: Short name of the evening performance, 2nd and 3rd column: who plays the corresponding performance (S=my colleague, W is me). The next columns apply to the morning rehearsals. The remaining part contains mainly appointments at the music university or with ministries, management appointments (VOP) and general matters.

1983 – 2014  EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

uLectures:

• Musical Acoustics 1 Basic Lecture
• Musical acoustics 2 Psychoacoustics and physiological acoustics
• Musical acoustics 3 Acoustics of musical instruments

Seminars:

• The Viennese Sound Style
• Measurement technology for musicians
• Diploma and dissertation seminar
• Privatissima
• Special seminars and student support within the IOIA
  (International Orchestra Institute Attergau) of the Vienna Philharmonic (1996 – 2014)

For many years students had to complete the 2-hour basic lecture “Musical Acoustics 1” in the first year of their studies. This was a huge shock for many of them, because they had previously only dealt with their instrument and artistic problems. Especially for foreign students (about 50% of the students at the MDW), for whom the language problem was an additional hurdle in the first year of their studies, this was a new and completely unfamiliar world. Suddenly they had to deal with things they had never heard of before and with logical thinking and physics. This left formative impressions – in a positive as well as sometimes negative sense.

The MDW played a pioneering role in this field worldwide, as such lectures now exist at most music universities and conservatories. The reason for this is the fact that the player and the instrument form a control loop within which they influence each other and the fact that almost all professional musicians slide into a crisis at some point in their career and do not know whether it is due to themselves or to the instrument. In such cases, the only way out of the crisis and to draw the right conclusions is to have a detailed knowledge of how your own instrument works and its inherent peculiarities.

In total, more than 3,000 students from around 20 countries attended my lectures and seminars. Many of them are now university professors themselves in Europe, the USA, South America and Asia and some of them hold leading academic positions in their institutions.

II. SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

Lectures and publications

1981 – 2020 over 90 lectures/keynotes at international congresses, many lectures and special courses at European universities and more than 100 publications in national and international journals, encyclopedias and books. Some publications have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Polish, Japanese and Chinese.

Research Project Management

1983 – 2020 a total of 12 major scientific research projects of the FWF, FFF, FFG, BMWF, the University Anniversary Foundation Vienna and the Anniversary Fund of the Austrian National Bank. Participation in several EU research projects

Memberships in (international) scientific associations 

• Acoustical Society of America , member
• European Acoustics Association, Representativ of Austria
• Life member of the Audio Engineering Society (USA)
• International Commission of Acoustics, institutional member
• Life member of the International Horn Society (USA)
• Historic Brass Society, member
• Catgut Acoustical Society, institutional member
• Austrian Acoustics Association. Co-founder and general manager. Chairman of the technical committee for musical acoustics. 1996 – 2010 Secretary General, 2010 – 2019 President, since 2020 Honorary member.

• Austrian Physical Society. Co-founder and board member of the Technical Committee Acoustics

• Since 2018 member of the Committee 138 “Acoustics” of the AUSTRIAN STANDARDS (ÖNORM), EN (European Standards Institute) and ISO (International Standard Organisation)
• Member of Scientific Boards and Scientific Committees at numerous international scientific symposia and congresses.

 III.  ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES

IV  ACTIVITIES IN THE UNIVERSITY AUTONOMOUS GOVERNMENT

V. PUBLIC RELATIONS WORK

Science and music fairs

After “Musical Acoustics” was completely unknown in Austria, even in scientific circles, and musical instrument acoustics was not available at all, I started to go public as soon as I had something presentable. In 1981, just one day before the closing date for registration, I learned that the 2nd Austrian science fair “UNITECH” would be held in the Vienna Messepalast, registered immediately and managed to get a small stand. Since I had no experience with such fairs and did not have any financial funds for such an event, I stood in an empty booth one day before the opening.

From today’s point of view, these fairs were well-intentioned and really familiar – but unbelievably provincial and totally unprofessional. Because there was no booth management and certainly no real exhibition management, many of the scientists left alone like me did: In addition to the standard equipment of two 1×1 meter small tables, 2 wooden chairs and 2 shelves from the last century, they organized further chairs and tables. A few posters were stuck together and that was it (see picture). The only things that stood out from the poor standard mixture were a few professionally designed company stands, such as those of AKG, Siemens, Brüel&Kjaer and various scientific publishers

But there were also positive things: genuine interest from politicians! Hertha Firnberg, the at these times already legendary Minister of Science, did not, as is customary today, race through the halls for half an hour and then disappear without a trace, but spent half a day at the fair – alone and without a swarm of employees in tow. So she simply sat down with me and let me explain and show her what it was all about for a quarter of an hour. Her precise questions showed real interest and not just a pretended interest.

Until 1989 I participated in the following four UNITECH fairs and in 1991 in the “VIET”, the International Trade Fair for Electrical Engineering and Industrial Electronics in Vienna. However, the impact was small, because the really important target groups, the musical instrument industry, musicians and the general public could not be reached.

1992 – 2003: The International Music Fair Frankfurt, the world’s largest annual music fair, was already in a different league. In 1992, the IWK was already fairly well established and I already had several employees. So I made an appointment with the Ministry of Science to raise the necessary funds for booth rent and travel expenses as an exhibitor in Frankfurt. To my surprise, the responsible ministerial advisor immediately promised me a budget of 82,000 shillings! He was very pleased with my initiative and said that the Ministry had its own budget for participation in foreign trade fairs, but that no one had yet claimed these funds. Of course – nobody knew about this pot due to a lack of transparency!.

However, the logistics for participating in the Frankfurt Music Fair were quite complex at that time: With almost 2,000 exhibitors worldwide, hotel rooms were hard to find during the fair, but were prohibitively expensive. I had never stayed in such small hotel rooms at a price you normally pay in a 5-star hotel for a small suite. But in return, there was champagne as a standard with the rich buffet breakfast, a thing that, to my astonishment, the staff of the different companies already made use of in the early morning. The computers and equipment that were to be exhibited required an export and re-import permit to be issued by the Ministry of Commerce. The transport had to be carried out by transport companies who could ensure correct customs clearance, and had to be coordinated with the stand management in Frankfurt, etc.

Every year up to and including 2003, we participated 13 times in this event and were thus able to enormously increase our level of public awareness in the international musical instrument making community and among professional musicians.

2014: European Researcher’s Night in the Old University of Vienna. On this occasion the first EU-project of our institute “BATWOMAN” was presented among other projects. The project submitted by Wilfried Kausel was funded by the EU with 3.9 million Euros.

Rundfunk, TV und Film

 2018 “Der Klang von Wien” (The Sound of Vienna) A documentary film, 42 min., by Alexander Schukoff (director) & Nadeschda Schukoff (screenplay), produced for 3SAT, ORF II and ORF III, with the participation of Zubin Mehta, and partly designed by me.

 2010 WDR 3 Tonart, Musik zum Mitnehmen “Institut für Wiener Klangstil” 6 min, (Germany).

 2009 NDR Kultur, Prisma Musik “Das Horn” 18 min., Teil 2, Hans-Heinrich Raab, Germany.

 2002 ORF, Dimensionen – die Welt der Wissenschaft: “Hören Sie Wienerisch?” 14 min., by Franz Tomandl.

 2000 “Der besondere Klang der Wiener Philharmoniker” 54 min., Deutschlandfunk, Hildburg Heider (Germany).

 1997 ORF, Dimensionen – die Welt der Wissenschaft: “Der Wiener Klangstil. Auf den Spuren eines Geheimnisses” 30 min., by Mirjam Jessa.

1990 ORF, Dimensionen – die Welt der Wissenschaft: “Musikinstrumente mit den Ohren der Physik”

 1989 ORF, Dimensionen – die Welt der Wissenschaft: “Musik und Technik im Gleichklang” 29 min., by Ines Smolek.

 1989 ORF, Dimensionen – die Welt der Wissenschaft: “Musikinstrumente auf dem Prüfstand” 30 min., by Franz Tomandl.

 1988 ORF, Dimensionen – die Welt der Wissenschaft: “Naturwissenschaftliche Komponenten des Musikhörens” 56 min., by Franz Tomandl.

 1985 ORF TV FS 1, Wissen Aktuell “Klang aus Wien”

 1981 ORF TV ZIB 1, “Kunst und Wissenschaft” Report on the work of the Institute für Wiener Klangstil in the most important news program at prime time in Austria.