University of Music and Theatre Leipzig


The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik, it is the oldest university school of music in Germany.
The institution includes the traditional Church Music Institute founded in 1919 by Karl Straube. The music school was renamed ″Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy″ after its founder in 1972. In 1992, it incorporated the Theaterhochschule "Hans Otto" Leipzig.
Since the beginning there was a tight relationship between apprenticeship and practical experience with the Gewandhaus and the Oper Leipzig, as well as theaters in Chemnitz, Dresden, Halle, Leipzig and Weimar.
The university of music and theater is one of 365 places chosen in 2009 by the Cabinet of Germany and the Office of the Representative of German Industry and Trade for the campaign Germany – Land of Ideas.

History

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the composer and Music Director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, founded a Conservatory in the city of Leipzig on 2 April 1843. It was financed by a senior civil servant of the Kingdom of Saxony, the Oberhofgerichtsrat Heinrich Blümner, who provided King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony with 20,000 Thaler.
The music school's home was in the first Gewandhaus. The musicians of the Orchestra were obligated to act as teaching staff, a tradition that was unbroken until German reunification in 1990.
In 1876 the school got permission to change its name to Königliches Konservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig, Royal Conservatory of Music of Leipzig. The new premises at Grassistraße 8 were inaugurated on 5 December 1887. They were built 1885–1887 by the architect Hugo Licht in the new neighbourhood Musikviertel, south-west of the city center. The benefactor was the pathologist Justus Radius.
Not until 1924 was the Royal Conservatory renamed into Landeskonservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig, six years after the fall of the Kingdom of Saxony.
In the summer term of 1938, 343 male students were enrolled at the Landeskonservatorium. This made the Conservatory the fourth biggest music school in the German Reich after the Universität der Künste Berlin, the music school of Cologne and the school for music and theater of Munich.
The Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk David was the school's director from 1939 until 1945.
The school was again renamed 8 June 1941 to Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Musikerziehung und darstellende Kunst, Public College for music, musical education and performing arts. In 1944 the school remained closed due to the Second World War.
Once again, the school was renamed 1 October 1946 to Mendelssohn Academy and 4 November 1972, on the occasion of its founders name, to Hochschule für Musik Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy College of Music.
The Saxon University Constitution Law of 10 April 1992 confirmed the College of Music to Leipzig and expanded it with the annexation of the Hans Otto College of Theatre to form the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy : the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy College of Music and Theatre.
The new Great Hall was inaugurated 2001 and 2004 awarded by the Bund Deutscher Architekten, a German architects union. The college's second premises were opened 2002 and there's an orchestra academy in co-operation with the Gewandhausorchestra since 2004 in order to support top musicians.

Names

  • 1843–1876: Conservatorium der Musik
  • 1876–1924: Königliches Konservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig
  • 1924–1941: Landeskonservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig
  • 1941–1944: Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Musikerziehung und darstellende Kunst
  • 1946–1972: Staatliche Hochschule für Musik – Mendelssohn-Akademie
  • 1972–1992: Hochschule für Musik "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy"
  • 1992–: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig

    Notable people

Notable alumni

This is an assortment of notable alumni: