The Ural Conservatoire

The Ural Conservatoire – the oldest musical establishment in the Urals and Siberia – is a creative and scientific centre of the vast area. It participates in a large-scaled concert activity and professional training of musicians (performers, teachers, composers, researches and specialists in educational methods) – who work in different fields of musical culture.

The Ural Conservatoire was founded in 1934 and became the first musical institution to the east of Volga district. It was the high status of Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk since 1924) as the Ural capital and the existence of musical college (set up in 1916) on the Russian Imperial musical society that brought to choose the city the place of the Conservatoire. One of the most beautiful buildings – the stone architectural monument of 1730s and reconstructed in classical style according to M.P. Malakhov’s project in 1830s was allocated to it. In 1967 the Conservatoire received an annex and later an inner court and then appeared the Bolshoy Concert Hall (Big) that was the second to the Maly Concert Hall (Small) named after S. Prokofiev who had performed there in 1935.

Nowadays musical education in the Ural State Mussorgsky Conservatoire is provided at the 16 chairs, in the form of baccalaureate, specialization degree, master’s degree, post-graduate course and assistance-probation period for instrumentalists. Teachers’ staff is a certain pride of the Conservatoire: about one hundred specialists (90%) have academic degrees of professors and associate professors (26), honorary titles of People’s and Honoured Artists, Honoured Workers of Art (53).

At the origins of the Conservatoire there have always been outstanding musicians. European roots of the Ural institution went back to the pre-revolutionary Russia and its staff constituted representatives of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, Tbilisi and Moscow musical-dramatical and Sinod colleges as well as the Court Singing Capella. Later on the graduates of the capital institutions arrived according to the obligatory for those years assignment of specialists. The Moscow Conservatoire had a special task to be patron of the young institution and provide its teachers’ staff. The galaxy of those brilliant names appeared to be striking for the distant region! All those musicians became the founders of the performing and creative schools having done honour to the Conservatoire. Among the founders there were composer M. Frolov (the first rector) and V. Trambitsky (founder of musical-theoretical school).