The University of Music and Arts Vienna Appoints New Bass Professor

Double bassist Dominik Wagner has joined the school’s faculty and will be auditioning new students in Summer 2025

The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW) has welcomed double bassist Dominik Wagner to its position of Professor of Bass at the school’s Fritz Kreisler Institute for Concert String Instruments, Guitar, and Harp.

A fellow of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, and an ECHO and Opus Klassik award winner, Wagner was born in Vienna in 1997 and began his musical education at the age of five, first on the cello before taking up the double bass in 2007. 

From 2009 to 2015, he attended MDW and studied at the University of Music Nuremberg with Dorin Marc in the following years. Since 2023, he has been part of the Professional Studies Program at the Kronberg Academy. 

He has performed solo with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, and the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen. Additionally, he has won prizes at the ARD Music Competition, Eurovision Young Musicians Competition, and International Bradetich Competition.

Dedicated to expanding the repertoire for the double bass, Wagner also creates many arrangements for the instrument, including works by Bach, Liszt, Dvorak, Gershwin, and Piazzolla. His discography includes several CDs on the Berlin Classics label. 

His collaborators have included the Emerson String Quartet, Danish String Quartet, Isabel Faust, Tabea Zimmermann, Gerhard Schultz, Elisabeth Leonskaja, the jazz double bassist Georg Breinschmid, and a clarinet trio with Vera Karner and Aurelia Visovan. 

Since 2023, Wagner has been a professor at the University of Music Würzburg, and regularly conducts masterclasses in Europe and the U.S. at schools such as the Peabody Institute, The Juilliard School, and the University of North Texas.

“A lot has been going on over the last few months and today I’m very happy to announce that I have been appointed double bass professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna!” Wagner posted on Instagram. “I already started earlier in October, next year towards summer there will be auditions for everyone who wants to study with me in the city of music!”