Odesa National Academy of Music

The Odesa National Academy of Music is a national higher education music academy in Odesa, Odesa Oblast, Ukraine.

History

The Odesa Conservatory was established in 1913 on the foundation of the music college of the Odesa branch of the Imperial Russian Music Society. The founder of the conservatory was a prominent Polish composer, conductor and teacher Witold Maliszewski, a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, and a teacher of Mykola Vilinsky and Witold Lutosławski.
In 1923, it was divided into a music institute and a technical school, which in 1928 were merged into the Music and Drama Institute.
In 1934 the Odesa Conservatory was re-established in the previous form. In 1950, it was named after the outstanding opera singer Antonina Nezhdanova.
That decision by Stalin's government not only disregarded Maliszewski’s foundational role but also provoked a long-standing controversy, since Nezhdanova had no connection to the institution.
On May 8, 2012, by the decree of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, the conservatory was renamed to "A.V. Nezhdanova Odesa National Academy of Music" and was granted a national status.