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 Joe Zawinul Prize of the MUK is awarded annually in the form of a project scholarship: In autumn, the winner of the previous year's prize presents the project developed since then at the Jazz & Music Club Porgy & Bess. The winner of the current year's prize is then also announced on the same evening.