In 2025, the Cologne University of Music and Dance will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Its history stretches back to 1845, when art-loving Cologne residents provided the starting capital for Cologne's first music school with a sum of money, ten talers a year to be precise. The idea for the foundation came from the conductor of the city theater, Heinrich Dorn. Together with the violinist Franz Hartmann and with the support of the city council and the music associations, they founded the first music school in Cologne, which at the time only taught piano, violin, solo and choral singing.

The composer and conductor Ferdinand Hiller, who took over the position of Municipal Kapellmeister in Cologne after Dorn's departure to the "Königliche Oper Berlin", added organ, violoncello, composition, harmony, counterpoint and declamation to the curriculum in 1850. From 1858, the institution operates under the title "Conservatorium der Musik in Cöln" and combines both amateur and professional training.

In 1925, in the middle of the Weimar Republic, the State Academy of Music in Cologne was founded as the successor to the Conservatory, laying the foundations for today's university. While one department is dedicated to the training of professional musicians and school music, the second department is entrusted with the promotion of amateur musicians. An eventful history begins, which is reflected in an anniversary program with numerous events throughout the year 2025.

For example, there is a specially conceived chamber music series, each of which is dedicated to a decade of the university's history in ten concerts, performing works by teachers and contemporaries of the time or addressing key historical developments such as the founding of the dance department or the jazz faculty.

The university celebrates its anniversary with numerous other concerts at all three locations in Cologne, Aachen and Wuppertal - spanning the history of music. Cooperation partners such as the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the WDR Big Band, the Museum Ludwig, the Kölner Orchestergesellschaft or the Landesjugendensembles NRW and the Offene Jazzhausschule are guests at the university this year or are carrying out joint projects with the university.

During a week of festivities, the university presents a cross-section of numerous areas of education and invites you to several concerts every day. A young talent day, an opera production in Cologne under the guest direction of Dietrich Hilsdorf, a dance production as well as children's and youth concerts and much more will enrich the anniversary program.