Prof. Mag. Maria Walcher - Austria

Born in Vienna, 1960. Study of Ethnology and Musicology in Vienna.

Since 1980 researcher and cultural mediator in the field of Austrian folk music, 1989-2003 managing director of the Austrian Folk Song Association.

2012 – 2015 lecturer for folk music at the Music University Mozarteum in Salzburg.

2006 – 2016 head of the National Agency for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Austrian Commission for UNESCO. Significant involvement in the development of the topic "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in the European context. Focusing on the field “knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe” as per UNESCO Convention 2003 resulted in new approaches especially in the issue of Traditional European Medicine.

International contacts in this area, f.i. membership in the UNESCO facilitator network for intangible cultural heritage.

Numerous publications on folk and Viennese music, on folk-cultural topics and on intangible cultural heritage.

Awards:

Austrian Award for Folk Culture 1999
Decoration for Achievements of the Republic of Austria in Silver 2004
Priessnitz Medal of the German Naturheilbund 2010