The MUK dedicates an excellence award to Joe Zawinul, one of its most famous alumni — the Joe Zawinul Prize of the MUK. The prize, sponsored by Raiffeisen Wien — Meine Stadtbank, is endowed with € 3000,— and enables one MUK student per year to realize a particularly creative and excellent jazz project, which is characterized by artistic excellence and dedicated to crossing musical boundaries or distinguished by high musical innovation.

In this way, the Joe Zawinul Prize promotes the realization of progressive artistic ideas as well as the artistic development and independence of the students and makes the exceptionally high level of the MUK's jazz programme and its students visible.

The award is decided by a top-class jury, consisting of experts from the MUK, a representative of the Zawinul Foundation for Achievement as well as top-class external musicians, music journalists and organizers, chaired by Prof. Lars Seniuk.

The winner of the Joe Zawinul Prize 2022 will be announced in early October. The public award ceremony will take place on Friday, 21 October 2022 at the Jazz & Music Club Porgy & Bess. During the award ceremony, last year's winner Abel Marton Nagy will also present his project realized with the prize money.