University of Music Wuerzburg

For more than two centuries, the University of Music Wuerzburg has offered high quality music education. Today, around 250 instructors from all over the world, including numerous world famous artists, prepare about 650 students each year for artistic, academic and pedagogical careers in the field of music. Artistic training is offered in all orchestral instruments, in a variety of historical instruments as well as in accordion, guitar, organ, piano, singing and saxophone. Other study courses include composition, conducting, classical percussion and jazz.

Music education at our university is targeted to all age groups: our Pre-College offers early learning opportunities and artistic training for musically gifted children and adolescents. Participants of our Bachelor’s and Master’s programs are prepared for academic and artistic professions while our School Music Program qualifies for a career as a music teacher. Professionals, who want to develop their artistic and academic skill set even further, attend our Master Classes and Doctoral Studies. Our Professional School provides life-long learning opportunities and further development of the musical personality.

In addition to our interest in offering high quality music education, the University of Music Wurzburg puts great emphasis on preserving musicians’ health. We consider our students’ health and well-being to be as important as the development of their artistic, academic and pedagogical skill-set. We are aware that only physically and psychologically healthy students can unfold their full musical potential. Thus, instrumentalists and singers alike are accompanied and trained by healthcare professionals throughout their years of study.

The University of Music Wurzburg is located in the heart of Wurzburg – a charming city with southern European flair that is well-known for its high quality of living, vibrant cultural life and beautiful historic townscape. Our three state-of-the-art buildings are close to the city centre and in walking distance of each other.

In each building, modern and soundproofed class and practice rooms invite students to learn and train under optimal learning conditions. Aside from first-class pianos, which are available for teachers and students in every practice room, a large variety of different instruments is available for artistic training, including a large and varied collection of string and wind instruments, valuable historic instruments and even a complete gamelan set. Additionally, the comprehensive percussion department provides access to practically all instruments of this genre. Complemented by an extensive library, a top-notch sound studio and an up-to-date studio for experimental electronic music, the University of Music Wurzburg has created an ideal environment for studying, experimenting and developing individual musical style.

Apart from classes and practice lessons, countless instrumental and vocal ensembles invite students of all study courses to gain stage experience and to further develop their artistic skill set. The University Symphony Orchestra, the Baroque Orchestra, the Ensembles for Early and Contemporary Music, the Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, the Opera School, the University Choir, the Chamber Choir, the BigBand, the jazz-pop choir ChorKraut and many others enrich the day-to-day life at the university and complement the cultural life of the city and the region.

The University of Music Wurzburg hosts more than 250 events each year, including festivals, concerts, ten to twelve operas and numerous projects in cooperation with local partners such as the Wurzburg Philharmonic Orchestra or the Mainfranken Theater.

After the commutation from conservatory to university of music in the early 1970ies, science and research appeared to complement music education. In the course of the 2001-fusion with Hermann-Zilcher-Conservatory Wuerzburg, further expertise especially in music pedagogy were added to our areas of research. The long term cooperation with wurzburg university as well as the collaboration with university of applied sciences wurzburg/schweinfurth allow large scale synergistic effects.

Nowaday academics of national and international estimation work on fields of research such as musicology, music-pedagogy and other problems in the field of tension between arts and science. Besides music history, the role of music in our conteporary culture and media, socio- and behavioural-scientific questions on making music, listening to it and learning to play music are relevant aspects of science and research at our university. A wide range of methods is used; analysis in music theory as well as classical methods of music-historical research and the whole range of empirical research. We are part of a vivid tranfer of knowledge with other universities and institutions in germany and abroad. Funded projects are a matter of course.