The Cologne University of Music ( is a

music college A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Founded in 1850, it is Europe's largest academy of music.

History

The academy was founded by

Ferdinand Hiller Ferdinand (von) Hiller (24 October 1811 – 11 May 1885) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, writer and music director. Biography Ferdinand Hiller was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main, where his father Justus (orig ...

in 1850 as ''Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln''. In 1895 German violinist Willy Hess was appointed as principal professor of violin at the Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln. In 1925 it became known as the ''Staatliche Hochschule für Musik'' having introduced new study and exam regulations. In 1972 it incorporated previously independent conservatories in Aachen and

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

, forming the ''Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Rheinland'' which in 1987 changed its name to ''Hochschule für Musik Köln'' or the Cologne University of Music.

Alumni

Theo Altmeyer Theo Altmeyer (16 March 1931 – 28 July 2007) was a German classical tenor. Although he was a successful opera singer, he is chiefly remembered for his work as an oratorio soloist. He possessed a rich and lyrical voice that he employed with grea ...

* Jürg Baur *

Heribert Beissel Heribert Beissel (27 March 1933 – 11 June 2021) was a German conductor. While based in Bonn for decades, as conductor at the Bonn Opera and as founder and conductor of the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, he also held leading positions in Halle ...

* Elena Braslavsky * Jan Chiapusso * Michael Denhoff * Allard de Ridder *

Sir Vivian Dunn Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Francis Vivian Dunn (24 December 1908 – 3 April 1995) was a British conductor who was Director of Music of the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines from 1931 to 1953 and Principal Director of Music of the Royal Mari ...

* Juan Carlos Echeverry Bernal * Mojca Erdmann *

Henry Fairs Henry Fairs (born 1976) is an English organist. He is organist to the University of Birmingham and Head of Organ Studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire;. Since winning the Odense International Organ Competition, his concert career has taken hi ...

Hedwig Fassbender Hedwig Fassbender (born 23 October 1954) is a German operatic mezzo-soprano and academic voice teacher. She has appeared in leading roles at major European opera houses, including some soprano roles such as Wagner's Isolde and Sieglinde. Care ...

Achim Fiedler Achim Fiedler (born 1965) is a German conductor. Biography Born in Stuttgart in 1965, Achim Fiedler studied violin at the Hochschule für Musik in Köln, in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and conducting at the Musikhochsch ...

* Christopher Fifield *

Johannes Fritsch Johannes Georg Fritsch (27 July 1941 – 29 April 2010) was a German composer. At the age of seven, Fritsch found a violin in the attic of his uncle's house in Bensheim-Auerbach, Germany, and began lessons with a village music teacher named Kna ...

Mechthild Georg Mechthild Georg is a German operatic mezzo-soprano, and a professor of voice at the Musikhochschule Köln. Career Georg studied Roman studies and history at the Cologne University, and music pedagogy at the Musikhochschule Köln. She then stud ...

* Reinhard Goebel * Georg Hajdu * Liselotte Hammes * Anja Harteros * York Höller * Engelbert Humperdinck * Hedy Iracema-Brügelmann *

Johannes Kalitzke Johannes Kalitzke (born 12 February 1959) is a German composer and conductor. After studying in Cologne and at the IRCAM in Paris, he was chief conductor at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen for several years, then led the ensemble musi ...

* Volker David Kirchner *

Hans Knappertsbusch Hans Knappertsbusch (12 March 1888 – 25 October 1965) was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. Knappertsbusch followed the traditional route for an aspiring conductor in Ger ...

* Akil Mark Koci *

Karlrobert Kreiten Karlrobert Kreiten (26 June 1916, Bonn, Rhine Province – 7 September 1943) was a German pianist, though holding Dutch citizenship his entire life due to his Dutch father. Biography He was regarded by Wilhelm Furtwängler and others to be one ...

* Carl Lachmund * Jin Sang Lee * Thomas Lehn * Mesias Maiguashca *

Willem Mengelberg Joseph Wilhelm Mengelberg (28 March 1871 – 21 March 1951) was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest s ...

* Karl Aagard Østvig * Luis Fernando Pérez * Adolph Schellschmidt * Olga Scheps * Steffen Schleiermacher *

Michael Schneider (flautist) Michael Schneider (born 10 August 1953) is a German flautist, recorder player, conductor and academic teacher. He is especially connected with later Baroque repertoire such as the works of Telemann and with early Classical repertoire such as the ...

* Johannes Schröder * Wilhelm Schüchter *

Juan Maria Solare ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...

* Caroline Stein *

Markus Stenz Markus Stenz (born 28 February 1965, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a German conductor. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with Volker Wangenhein and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. Stenz has ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

* Wolfgang Stockmeier * Zoran Dukic * Chris Walden * Graham Waterhouse *

Eberhard Werdin Eberhard Werdin (19 October 1911 in Spenge – 25 May 1991 in Weilheim in Oberbayern) was a German composer and writer on music. He studied in Hanover, Bielefeld and Cologne, and then became a schoolteacher. From 1955 to 1969 he was a lecturer a ...

* Soyoung Yoon *

Bernd Alois Zimmermann Bernd Alois Zimmermann (20 March 1918 – 10 August 1970) was a German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera ''Die Soldaten'', which is regarded as one of the most important German operas of the 20th century, after those of Berg. As a ...

* Goran Krivokapić * Lili Wieruszowski *

Bruno Vlahek Bruno Vlahek (born 11 February 1986 in Zagreb) is a Croatian pianist and composer. Vlahek started his musical education at the age of nine in his hometown. Immediately recognized as a specially gifted child, he entered class of Vladimir Krpan a ...

Lecturers

* Pierre-Laurent Aimard * Zakhar Bron * Marcus Creed * Liselotte Hammes * York Höller * Konrad Junghänel * Klesie Kelly * Maria Kliegel *

Vassily Lobanov Vasily Pavlovich Lobanov also Vassily Lobanov (Васи́лий Па́влович Лоба́нов, born 2 January 1947) is a Russian composer and pianist. He has been a Duo-Partner of Sviatoslav Richter Biography Vasily Lobanov was born in Mo ...

* Florence Millet * Jono Podmore * Edda Moser * Christoph Prégardien * Zoran Dukic

Former lecturers

Hermann Abendroth Hermann Paul Maximilian Abendroth (19 January 1883 – 29 May 1956) was a German conductor. Early life Abendroth was born on 19 January 1883, at Frankfurt, the son of a bookseller. Several other members of the family were artists in diverse dis ...

* András Adorján * Amadeus Quartet * Jürg Baur *

Erling Blöndal Bengtsson Erling Blöndal Bengtsson (March 8, 1932 – June 6, 2013) was a Danish cellist. Born in Copenhagen, Bengtsson gave his first public performance there in 1936, when he was four years old. He was admitted at the age of sixteen to the Curtis Insti ...

Walter Braunfels Walter Braunfels (; 19 December 1882 – 19 March 1954) was a German composer, pianist, and music educator. Life Walter Braunfels was born in Frankfurt. His first music teacher was his mother, the great-niece of the composer Louis Spohr. He c ...

* Herbert Eimert * Maurits Frank *

* Clemens Ganz * Vinko Globokar *

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

* Willy Hess (violinist) *

Philipp Jarnach Philipp Jarnach (26 July 1892 17 December 1982 in Börnsen) was a German composer of modern music ("Neue Musik"), pianist, teacher, and conductor. Jarnach was born in Noisy-le-Sec, France, the son of a Spanish sculptor and a Flemish mother. Besi ...

Adolf Jensen Adolf Jensen (12 January 1837 – 23 January 1879) was a German pianist, composer and music teacher. Biography Jensen was born in Königsberg to a family of musicians. Although largely self-taught, he also had instruction from Louis Ehlert, ...

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

* Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky * Günter Ludwig * Frank Martin * Josef Metternich *

Krzysztof Meyer Krzysztof Meyer (born 11 August 1943) is a Polish composer, pianist, and music scholar, formerly Dean of the Department of Music Theory (1972–1975) at the State College of Music (now Academy of Music in Kraków), and president of the Union of P ...

* August von Othegraven * Siegfried Palm * Carl Reinecke *

Max Rostal Max Rostal (7 July 1905 – 6 August 1991) was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship. Biography Max Rostal was born in Cieszyn to a Jewish merchant family. As a child prodigy, he started studyin ...

Heinrich Schiff Heinrich Schiff (18 November 1951 – 23 December 2016) was an Austrian cellist and conductor. Early life Heinrich Schiff was born on 18 November 1951 in Gmunden, Austria. His parents, Helga (née Riemann) and Helmut Schiff, were composers. H ...

* Hermann Schroeder * Isidor Seiss *

* Wolfgang Stockmeier * Volker Wangenheim *

Erich Wenk Erich Wenk (12 August 1923 – 30 March 2012) was a German bass-baritone singer in opera and especially in concert. He was a professor of voice at the . Career Wenk was born in . In 1957 he performed the by Johannes Brahms on a tour through Ge ...

Jiggs Whigham Jiggs Whigham (born Oliver Haydn Whigham III; August 20, 1943) is an American jazz trombonist. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, he began his professional career at the age of 17, joining the Glenn Miller/Ray McKinley orchestra ...

Franz Wüllner Franz Wüllner (28 January 1832 – 7 September 1902) was a German composer and conductor. He led the premieres of Wagner's ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'', but was much criticized by Wagner himself, who greatly preferred the more celebrate ...

(List is mixed)

References

External links