The Mozarteum
Austria’s Most International University
By Sarah Wedl-Wilson
Top Photo: Mozarteum students inside the university. Mozarteum/ Christian Schneider
Do you know Salzburg? If not, you have missed out. There is hardly any other European city in which the beat of classical music is felt so strongly as in Salzburg. Every year, opera and concertgoers from all over the world flock to the famous Salzburg Festival, and among university towns the home of the musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart enjoys a one-of-akind reputation. Students from more than 60 nations make the Mozarteum, an academy of music and performing art, the most international university in Austria, as about half of its 1,700 students hail from abroad.
In 2016, the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg celebrated its centenary. Every year, between 800 and 1,000 musical prodigies from all over the world are invited to Salzburg to perfect their skills in masterclasses, seminars, and workshops. From the beginning, Americans like Julian Freedman strongly influenced the shape of this summer academy. He dramatically reformed its curriculum by establishing the “essential” classes in piano, composition, conducting and opera, besides classes in singing and violin, which were initially offered.
Even far older than the summer academy is the Mozarteum University itself. Classes began in the 1841-1842 academic year. A group of music-loving middle-class citizens, supported by then-Archbishop Friedrich von Schwarzenberg founded the Mozarteum and the Cathedral Music Association to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the namesake, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They intended to give added momentum to musical life in Salzburg by organizing concerts, and they also wanted to ensure that there were enough young male instrumentalists for the Roman Catholic church services held in Salzburg Cathedral. Accordingly, the statutes stated that the Cathedral Music Association is “an institution only for students of the male sex, who are to be taught in singing, recitation, on musical instruments, in basso continuo, and in composition. If the forces of the association and other circumstances permit, the association will also allow to open education at the Mozarteum to the female sex, but in any case, in separate places.”
Students at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts Mozarteum
Photo: Mozarteum/ Christian Schneider
Forty years later, the Salzburg Mozarteum was a well-established music academy. Even the press spoke highly of it: “Anyone who had the chance to attend the two previous public recitals of this institution could immediately come to the conclusion that this new music academy not only met the expectations but exceeded them by far.” (Salzburger Volksblatt, July, 1881).
Over time, more courses were offered, but the rules remained strict, capturing the Zeitgeist of the 19th century. Quoting the disciplinary code in the academic year of 1910: "Public appearances by students outside the academy are only granted by a permission letter from the school principal. Having fun at balls, dances or concerts, which take place beyond midnight, are forbidden under all circumstances.”
The War Years: Sewing machines replace grand pianos
Due to the economic crisis after World War I, Mozarteum was brought into public ownership in 1922. Members of the Austrian Parliament vividly described the emergency situation of the music academy and the financial distress of its staff, „whose monthly salary is so low that the equivalent value hardly represents a new pair of shoes.“ During World War II, staff and students were drafted into the Wehrmacht or labor service. All the courses fell victim to the war situation. The academy building housed a clothing company, and later the Gauwirtschaftskammer (the regional economic chamber). Some female students found a workplace in the familiar environment: The girls continued attending the Mozarteum in their „senior year,” with the exception that they were no longer sitting in front of grand pianos, but at sewing machines as part of a textile company important to the war effort.
Immediately after World War II, American soldiers first transformed the grand concert hall of the Mozarteum into a movie theater and housed their military postal service in the school building. However, as early as October 8, 1945, the Mozarteum was the first Austrian university to reopen its doors and subsequently continued to grow and thrive as an art and music academy of international reputation. Today, the initially hesitant treatment of the female sex belongs to the past; women outnumber their male colleagues at the university and currently account for 62 percent of the student body.
Luminaries at the Mozarteum
Over the years, a lot of eminent personalities have been associated with Salzburg’s art and music academy. In 1961, German composer Carl Orff established the Orff Institute, an internationally renowned center for elemental music and dance education. It regards the relationship between music, language and dance as the basis of musical socialization and development of the personality. The Orff Institute is part of the department for music education and is located in the city of Salzburg near the historic Frohnburg Palace.
The Mozarteum’s building in Salzburg, aerial view.
Photo: Mozarteum/ Christian Schneider
From 1916 to 1926, legendary maestro Herbert von Karajan attended Mozarteum academy. In 1955, the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard took classes in acting and directing. In 2013, the department of acting and directing was renamed the “Thomas Bernhard Institute” in his honor. The institute for chamber music is named after the Hungarian violinist and conductor Sándor Végh, who was a visiting professor in Salzburg from 1972 to 1994. Mozarteum’s only honorary doctor so far was awarded to the Austrian maestro and early-music specialist Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who taught there from 1973 to 1993.
A memorable highlight in the history of the international summer academy happened in 1947, when the German composer Paul Hindemith, back then a professor at Yale University, held a guest course. His presence prompted music students to hold a spontaneously arranged meeting with young scientists, who were accommodated at the invitation of Harvard University at Leopoldskron Castle at the same time.
The Sound of Music
Many people around the world, especially in the United States., associate Salzburg with the American movie The Sound of Music and its popular songs. The city’s visitors bureau estimates that about 300,000 guests (twice the local population) visit “Sound of Music” locations annually. It is worth mentioning that five of the ten children of the von Trapp family (from both marriages of Baron Georg von Trapp) attended Mozarteum between 1930 and 1932.
Sarah Wedl-Wilson was vice president for external affairs as well as interim president of the Mozarteum Salzburg from 2014 until 2018, and has been chair of the supervisory board of the Salzburg Easter Festival since 2015.
Translated by Julia Aßl