Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth

Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth is professor of Piano and Applied Piano Didactics and deputy director of the Ludwig van Beethoven Institute for Piano in Music Education at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).

She has been invited to lead masterclasses at various institutions, including the Conservatorio statale di musica Jacopo Tomadini in Udine, the Conservatorio di musica G. Tartini in Trieste, the Conservatorio Superior de Música Victoria Eugenia in Granada, the HMDK Stuttgart (University of Music), and the Estonian Academy of Music in Tallinn.

She received her musical education at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (studying under Antoinette van Zabner) and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris (CNSDMP) with Marie-Françoise Bucquet. Additionally, she holds a degree in Romance Studies from the University of Vienna and the Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris. 

As a pianist, chamber musician and song accompanist, she has performed extensively in Europe, the USA, and Japan. Her performances in the field of music education have taken place at prestigious venues such as the Musikverein Vienna, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Arnold Schönberg Center Vienna, passwort:klassik (the music education program of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) and the opera camps during the Salzburg Festival. Currently, Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth performs as a pianist with the Orpheus-Ensemble-Wien and the Max Brand Ensemble.

In 2018, she founded the KlavierdidaktikerInnen Kreis Österreich, a discussion group of teachers specialized in piano didactics and methodology from Austrian universities, private universities, and conservatories of music. The group aims to bring together the diverse expertise of colleagues from all over Austria and further develop the didactic and methodological content of the subject.

Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth is a regular lecturer at teacher training courses organized by the Music School Associations of Austria and South Tyrol, as well as EPTA Austria. She also serves as a jury member at Prima La Musica Austria. Furthermore, she has gained recognition as the author of numerous piano pedagogical publications with Universal Edition Vienna, Breitkopf & Härtel, and Sikorski.