- Person
- Felix Mendelssohn
- Lived
- 1809–1847
- Field
- Music
- From
- German
The story
In 1835 Felix Mendelssohn became director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, and he set out to raise the musical life of the whole city, working with the orchestra, the opera house, the Thomanerchor and Leipzig's choral societies. He believed passionately in musical education. In 1840 the new King of Prussia had invited him to found a music school in Berlin, but the funds never materialised, and Mendelssohn was glad to return to Leipzig.
There he succeeded. A senior Saxon civil servant, Heinrich Blümner, had provided King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony with 20,000 thalers, and the money was used to found a conservatory. Mendelssohn opened the Leipzig Conservatory of Music on 2 April 1843 in the old Gewandhaus building in the city centre. The orchestra's musicians served as teachers, a tradition that continued unbroken until 1990.
Mendelssohn persuaded some of the finest musicians of the day to teach. They included his old teacher and friend the pianist Ignaz Moscheles, the composer Robert Schumann, the violinists Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim, and the music theorist Moritz Hauptmann. Mendelssohn himself taught classes in composition and ensemble playing. After his death in 1847, Moscheles succeeded him as head of the school and carried on his tradition.
The conservatory became one of the most important music schools in Europe, drawing students from many countries. In 1876 it became the Royal Conservatory, and in 1887 it moved to a new building in Leipzig's Musikviertel. During the Nazi period, Mendelssohn's Jewish origins were used to ban his music, and the Mendelssohn scholarship for students at the conservatory was discontinued in 1934. It was revived in 1963, and in 1972 the school took its founder's name.
Since 1992 it has been the University of Music and Theatre Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig, the oldest university school of music in Germany. More than 180 years after its founding, it still trains performers, composers and actors, and works with the Gewandhaus Orchestra through an orchestra academy, keeping alive the close link between study and performance that Mendelssohn built into it from the start.
Why it matters
Mendelssohn's conservatory has trained musicians for more than 180 years and helped shape professional music education worldwide.
About Felix Mendelssohn
Romantic composer and conductor; revived the music of J.S. Bach and shaped 19th-century European music.
More about Felix Mendelssohn
- Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah premiered in Birmingham in 1846Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah, on the story of the Hebrew prophet, was commissioned by the Birmingham Festival and premiered at the city's Town Hall on 26 August 1846.
- Felix Mendelssohn sparked a Handel revival in GermanyIn 1833 Felix Mendelssohn opened the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf with Handel's Israel in Egypt, prepared from the original score, sparking a Handel revival in Germany.
- Felix Mendelssohn sketched a masterpiece at Fingal's CaveVisiting Scotland in 1829, Felix Mendelssohn wrote down the opening theme of his Hebrides Overture on the spot after seeing Fingal's Cave, sending it home in a letter that evening.
- Felix Mendelssohn premiered Schubert's lost Great SymphonyOn 21 March 1839 Felix Mendelssohn conducted the premiere of Franz Schubert's Ninth Symphony in Leipzig, more than a decade after Schubert's death, after Robert Schumann found the manuscript.
- Felix Mendelssohn brought Bach's St Matthew Passion backIn 1829, aged 20, Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach's all-but-forgotten St Matthew Passion in Berlin, the central event in the revival of Bach's music across Europe.
- Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto became one of the greatestFelix Mendelssohn wrote his Violin Concerto in E minor in 1844 for his friend Ferdinand David; Joseph Joachim ranked it among the four great violin concertos.
- Felix Mendelssohn's music is heard at weddings and ChristmasFelix Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, from his music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the tune of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing both come from his music.
- Felix Mendelssohn paid for Leipzig's first Bach monumentIn 1840 Felix Mendelssohn began a project for a monument to J. S. Bach in Leipzig, funding it with three concerts and paying the rest from his own fortune; it was unveiled in 1843.
Sources
- Felix Mendelssohn Wikipedia
- University of Music and Theatre Leipzig Wikipedia
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