Hungry for Culture - Trossingen University of Music
The State University of Music offers its students the traditional range of subjects of a music university. It specialises in the study of early music and artistic training in music and movement. The interdisciplinary Music Design programme cooperates with Furtwangen University, which views working with sound as a building block of an overall production that can be experienced in a multimedia and multi-sensory way.
The Trossingen University of Music stands for tradition and innovation: the State Centre for MUSIC DESIGN PERFORMANCE builds a bridge from the traditional artistic subjects to the digital age with its new possibilities for artistic practice, research and teaching. New impulses are introduced, considered and further developed in a world characterised by digital media. The university researches and teaches in various third-party funded projects such as AI in music, music studies in the digital space and VR for music lessons. All students benefit from this. In addition to an excellent classical education, they receive additional impetus for multimedia projects, digital applications and new concert formats.
In the south of Baden-Württemberg, the University of Music also fulfils a far-reaching cultural mission with more than 400 events per year. It sees itself as a partner, initiator and creative counterpart. The close links between our students and alumni and this region are unique. They conduct choirs and orchestras, teach and organise concerts. There are various rhythmic groups for children, young people and adults at the university, which are open to new members. | A Short History of Our University
Key Dates of Our History
1943: Evacuation of parts of the Stuttgart University of Music to Trossingen, teaching rooms in the Friedensschule
1944: Courses of study at various universities (Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, etc.) are combined into the "State University Institute for Music Education at the University of Heidelberg," based in Trossingen, after 1945 under the direction of Ernst-Lothar von Knorr
1946: Establishment of the "State University Institute for Music Education Trossingen"
1947: "State University of the state of southern Württemberg/Hohenzollern" (dissolved in 1950)
1951: "University Institute for Music Trossingen" sponsored by the Hohner Foundation, the State of Baden-Württemberg, the town of Trossingen and the Hohner company
1952: Director Prof. Guido Waldmann
1971: Renationalization as "State University for Music Education Trossingen" (with the re-established church music department)
1972: University director, later elected rector: Prof. Eugen Frosch
1975: "State University of Music Trossingen"
1979: Reestablishment of the school music program
1980: Rector Prof. Jürgen Weimer
1981: Establishment of the orchestral music program
1994: Establishment of the Institute for Early Music
2005: Establishment of the subsidiary "Music Academy Villingen-Schwenningen GmbH" with Precollege, Musikschule, Jazz and Rock school and the institute for Music Pedagogy
2006: Prof. Elisabeth Gutjahr is elected rector
"Next Generation," an offer for the Donaueschingen Music Days of the SWR, is established together with the Institute for Contemporary Music (IzM) of the Frankfurt University of Music as a forum for young composers.
"Music from the factory" initiative with the "Business Juniors" of the IHK Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg
2007: Cooperation agreement with the University of Nanchang (China)
2008: The Trossingen University of Music becomes a member of the International Universities of Lake Constance (IBH)
2009 – 2011: Implementation of the Bologna decisions and initiation of the conversion to Bachelor's and Master's courses and the development of new courses.
2010: New innovative Bachelor‘s programme "Music design" in cooperation with University of Furtwangen
2013/2020: Successful accredition of the Bachelor‘s and Master‘s programmes
2014: Cooperation agreement with Tongji University Shanghai
2016: Establishment of the state center MUSIK–DESIGN–PERFORMANCE
2018: Change from Prof. Elisabeth Gutjahr as Rector of the Mozarteum to Salzburg. Prof. Michael R. Hampel, deputy rector, leads the University for one year.
2018: Prof. Christian Fischer, previously rector of the Tübingen University of Sacred Music, is elected as the new rector. He took office in the spring of 2019.