Major Success for mdw Students at the 2025 “Red Bull Scoring Challenge”

Three Prizewinners from Vienna – Collaboration with Red Bull Music and Synchron Stage Vienna.

Red Bull Music is once again hosting the “Red Bull Scoring Challenge”, an annual composition competition for young film music composers. This year, ten students from the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna submitted their works, with David Engelhart, Julius Meisse, and Paul C. Schmidt selected as prizewinners.

The remaining seven awards went to students from the world-renowned Berklee College of Music in the United States, which submitted approximately 200 entries. The success of the mdw students highlights the high artistic standards and international competitiveness of the media composition program at mdw. Professor Walter Werzowa, who is the professor for Media Composition and Film Music at mdw, is currently working with his assistant Consti Luger, Martin Brem and Gosia Spolnik from Red Bull Music, and the team at Synchron Stage Vienna (including Vienna Symphonic Library, formerly Rosenhügel Studios) on the production of the winning compositions.

The winning pieces are currently being recorded at Synchron Stage in Vienna. Notably, a large number of mdw students are also part of the orchestra involved in the recordings, having successfully auditioned. These talented musicians will contribute not only to this project but also to future commercial productions as instrumentalists.