Category Archives: General

Red Carpet 2025

Ball 2025, General

Our guests of honor traditionally meet for a drink in the town hall shortly before the official opening of the ball. These include ball ambassadors, whose encouraging and critical messages can be found in the blog of the last few weeks; the representatives of universities, universities of applied sciences, private universities and research institutions who support us with their networks and form the honorary committee; companies, alumni associations and funding institutions who contribute to the financing of the ball with their bookings; public figures who care about science, education and research; and last but not least our guests from abroad. Continue reading Red Carpet 2025 →

Thorsten Schumm: Boldly into the new era!

Ball 2025, General

As an experimental physicist, I am conducting research into a new definition of time with the “nuclear clock”. Last year, we succeeded for the first time in exciting a thorium-229 isotope atomic nucleus in a targeted manner using a laser. It is now conceivable that nuclear clocks will replace the atomic clocks currently in use. The new “quantum physics with nuclei” has many other possible applications, from information storage to very high-energy lasers. Continue reading Thorsten Schumm: Boldly into the new era! →

The venus flytrap snaps shut (again)

Ball 2025, General

A reunion with an old friend that already decorated the tables at the first Science Ball in 2015: the Venus flytrap.

From the outside it looks harmless. Delicate, almost innocent. Like a leaf with braces, an alien smile in green. But beware if someone is careless. Then it clicks. Then it snaps shut. And while you are still amazed, it has already snapped shut – bang, game over. The Venus flytrap, botanically correct Dionaea muscipula, is a plant and a hunter, an ornament and a killer at the same time. And, as luck would have it, this year it is (again) a table decoration at the Vienna Science Ball. Continue reading The venus flytrap snaps shut (again) →

Clear the Stage for Donna Savage

General
© fckthatsspicy

A rapper who lives between “street filth and Beverly Hills”. With sharp lines, social criticism and an unagitated style, Donna Savage is conquering the German rap scene: she studies, lives art and asks herself questions that others would rather not ask. In her sound, anger meets reflection – and opens up space for change. This will be the case at #SciBall25 at 1:00 a.m. when she performs at the disco. Continue reading Clear the Stage for Donna Savage →

The voice that breaks all chains

General
La Ledoux / Photo: Wolf-Dieter Grabner

Katia Ledoux is the sensation of the season. The opera singer is a guest at the Science Ball for the first time. And she exceeds all expectations here too.

It is an evening that will go down in the annals of opera. Wiener Volksoper, February 1, 2023: Katia Ledoux is on stage, unlike planned. The 32-year-old mezzo-soprano is supposed to play Venus in Jacques Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld”. Just Venus. Just her role. But when Orpheus and his understudy both fall ill, Ledoux takes on both parts – mezzo-soprano and tenor, femininity and masculinity, goddess and human. Without rehearsal, straight into the spotlight. The next day, the world is talking about her. Not only in Vienna, not only in opera circles. Everywhere. Women singing male roles? It happens, but it’s rare. Continue reading The voice that breaks all chains →

Discovery at the anniversary

General
Maestro Vinzenz Praxmarer with soloist Anne Wieben at the ball 2020 / Photo: R. Ferrigato

Johann Strauss the younger is a classic of popular music and therefore a must at every Viennese ball. Especially in the anniversary year of his 200th birthday. But the Divertimento Viennese ball orchestra, under the direction of Vinzenz Praxmarer, will be offering not only the greatest hits such as the Blue Danube Waltz but also a special surprise as a ball overture: Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s “Straussiana” from 1953, a potpourri of rather unknown melodies by the Waltz King, which the composer masterfully condensed into a tribute. Continue reading Discovery at the anniversary →

A fanfare to the ball

General
The MAK fanfare at the #SciBall24 / Photo: R. Ferrigato

The Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna (MUK for short) has accompanied the Science Ball from the very beginning. And this is to be understood literally. Every year, students specially compose fanfares which form the prelude to the opening. Student Laura Oos (born 2003) has composed a “Fanfare for the Scientists” especially for this year’s anniversary, which will be performed by students from the Jazz, Wind Instruments and Percussion departments under the direction of the composer. And that’s not all. At midnight, Alexandra Danilova (soprano), Ghazal Kazemi (mezzo-soprano), Malo Peloffy (tenor) and Aleksandr Ivanov (bass) will accompany Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” with the Divertimento Viennese ball orchestra.