The MUK dedicates an excellence prize to Joe Zawinul, one of its most famous alumni - the MUK Joe Zawinul Prize. The prize, sponsored by Raiffeisen Wien-Stadtbank, enables one MUK student each year to realize a particularly creative and excellent jazz project that is characterized by artistic excellence and is dedicated to crossing musical boundaries or is characterized by a high level of 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 high level of the MUK jazz course and its students visible.