The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz awards an honorary doctorate to the musician and political activist Maryja Kalesnikawa.

Maryja Kalesnikawa is one of the leading figures of the Belarusian opposition. She was sentenced to eleven years in prison after the 2020 presidential election and has been in a penal colony since September 2021 – repeatedly in solitary confinement. Amnesty International lists her as a political prisoner, and the European Parliament has also regularly called for her unconditional release.

Maryja Kalesnikawa studied early and contemporary music in Stuttgart and lived in Germany for twelve years, working as a flutist and cultural manager. In particular, she was associated with the ECLAT Festival Neue Musik Stuttgart and worked for InterAKT, an initiative that connects artists form different disciplines for joint projects. On the occasion of the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Maryja Kalesnikawa, the documentary film Courage by Aliaksei Paluyan will be shown at the Schubert Kino.