Webster's international campuses are located around the world and include the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. At Webster Vienna, music students join classmates from dozens of other countries for a truly global education. At Webster St. Louis, our programs of study have been carefully designed to ensure that all music students are able to study for a term in Vienna, typically during spring of the junior year.
The curriculum has also been designed to ensure unique opportunities for students from Webster partnership network, the WINS program.
While in Vienna, music majors take a course detailing musical life in Vienna, take private applied lessons, and fulfill one of the course requirements for the Webster Global Citizenship Program. You will be able to travel on long weekends, attend dozens of performances, and soak up life in the musical capital of Europe!
In Vienna, you'll study with English-speaking professionals, many of whom play in Vienna's professional orchestras, teach children of diplomats, serve on the faculty of the top music schools, or enjoy an international career.
Webster's campus in Vienna has been open since the 1980s. When the Webster Department of Music introduced the music program, our faculty thought that Wien (pronounced veen by Austrians) was a natural place for study because of its history as a center of European culture. Many important composers lived in Vienna at one time (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, Liszt, and of course, the Strauss boys, to name but a few).
“It was an inspiring experience to study in Vienna as a music major because of the constant access to performances and shows of all styles and genres. Not only is music thriving here, but it is respected and preserved by the Viennese culture.”
Dannie Fuller
BA Music, ’24
Helpful Information About Studying in Vienna
Webster music students or WINS students can attend the Vienna program during Spring 2 of the junior year. During Spring 2, students generally enroll in a 7-credit course load similar to:
- A Global Citizenship Program course, 3 credits
- MUSC 4705, The Viennese Musical Experience, 3 credits
- Applied lessons on the primary instrument, 1 credit
WINS students who study in Vienna for a full semester take a 14-credit course load similar to this:
- A general education course, 3 credits
- GRMN 1090, Introductory German, 3 credits
- ILC 2150, 3 credits. This popular Topics in Culture course, currently offered each Fall semester, features an urban historicist with Viennese history as the urban landscape.
- MUSC 4705, The Viennese Musical Experience, 3 credits.
- Applied lessons, 2 credits. Lessons on primary applied instrument.
Why study in Vienna? Well, first, because you'll be in the seat of the Hapsburg Empire that dominated continental Europe for the better part of two hundred years. You can visit the Hofburg, the 2400-room palace located in downtown Vienna. Or take the U-Bahn (subway) out to Schönbrunn — the tiny little summer palace with only 1400 rooms. When he was six, Mozart played for the royal family here.
Vienna is a modern center for the fine arts with magnificent museums and galleries, the Stadtsoper and Volksoper, jazz clubs and theatre, as well as a terrific public transportation system.
Many Viennese find no reason to own a car (and pay $8.00 a gallon for gas) because you can hop on the U-Bahn, change to a waiting tram, and wind up a block or two from where you wanted to go. Tickets for public transportation can be purchased by the trip, the week, or the month.
Mountains are nearby, and the Alps just a few hours to the west by train. Vienna boasts easy train access to numerous other European countries. Capitals such as Prague and Budapest are only three hours away, and Bratislava in Slovakia is but an hour's ride on a train.
Another reason to study in Vienna is for credentials. Whether you are auditioning for an orchestra, applying for graduate school, or interviewing for a job at Boeing, a term or a semester in Europe tells a prospective employer that you can adapt, persevere, and succeed in unfamiliar and occasionally challenging surroundings.
One of Webster’s great deals is the ability to study in Vienna (or elsewhere) with Webster paying your airfare, and you paying the same tuition in Vienna as you do here in Saint Louis! (This award applies only to Webster students. WINS students receive up to $1000 toward airfare.)
Music students regularly study in Vienna, from both Webster St. Louis and our WINS partners. One said recently “I went knowing it was going to change my life, but not knowing how. Now I want to go back. Study in Vienna made me an adventurer . . . and I’ve never felt like such an adult.”
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