Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium
Musikakademie
The Conservatory in Frankfurt-Ostend in 2009
TypePublic
Established1878 (1878)
Address
Sonnenmannstraße 16
, , ,
Germany

50°06′37″N 8°41′59″E / 50.1102°N 8.69986°E / 50.1102; 8.69986
Websitewww.dr-hochs.de

Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium – Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on 22 September 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. Instrumental to the foundation, prosperity and success of the conservatory was its director Joachim Raff who did most of the work including setting the entire curriculum and hiring all its faculty.[1] It has played an important role in the history of music in Frankfurt. Clara Schumann taught piano, as one of distinguished teachers in the late 19th century, gaining international renown for the conservatory. In the 1890s, about 25% of the students came from other countries: 46 were from England and 23 from the United States.

In the 1920s, under director Bernhard Sekles, the conservatory was far ahead of its time: Sekles initiated the world's first Jazz Studies (directed by Mátyás Seiber)[2] and in 1931 the Elementary Music Department.

Dr. Hoch's conservatory offers instruction in the Music Education for Youth and Adults (ANE) program, the Elementary Music Department (Basisabteilung), and the Pre-College-Frankfurt (PCF) program, which provides preparation for future studies at a Hochschule or conservatory. There are also Ballet, Early Music and New Music departments. The following qualifications are available: Bachelor of Music in Performance and Pedagogy in all instruments, voice, music theory, composition, performance and Elementary Music Pedagogy.

Chronology

Clara Schumann, in 1878, taught at the conservatory 1878–1892
Saalhof ca. 1900: Home of the conservatory 1878–88
Eschenheimer Landstr. 4. Hoch Conservatory, c. 1900. Home of the conservatory 1888–1943
Eschenheimer Landstr. 4. Volksbildungsheim. Home of the conservatory 1951–1988
Philanthropin Frankfurt: Home of the conservatory 1986–2004

Directors

The first director: Joachim Raff in 1878

Teachers and students

Distinguished teachers

Engelbert Humperdinck composed Hänsel und Gretel c. 1891 in Frankfurt

Distinguished students

Hans Pfitzner studied composition and piano at the conservatory
Paul Hindemith aged 28 (1923). Hindemith studied violin and composition at the Conservatory

Teachers

Students

Oskar Fried, studied 1891–92 with Iwan Knorr

Legacy

100 DM bill Front
100 DM bill Reverse

The German Federal Bank honored the conservatory on the reverse side of the former 100 DM bill with a picture of the original conservatory building, unfortunately bombed in World War II. Clara Schumann, the first piano teacher, is pictured on the front side of the bill.

References

  1. ^ "Raff's Role in Dr. Hoch's Conservatory".
  2. ^ "This was actually the first academic program for the study of jazz anywhere in the world." Kathryn Smith Bowers, "East Meets West. Contributions of Mátyás Seiber to Jazz in Germany." Jazz and the Germans, (Ed. Michael J. Budds), Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2002, ISBN 978-1576470725, S. 122.
  3. ^ "albert mangelsdorff". albert mangelsdorff (in German). Retrieved 9 May 2022.

Further reading