Hoch Conservatory

Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium
Musikakademie
	The Conservatory in Frankfurt-Ostend in 2009
Type	Public
Established	1878
Address	Sonnenmannstraße 16, Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany; 50°6′36″N 8°41′59″E
Website	www.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.

Quick Facts Type, Established ...

Close

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.

1857: 14 July: Dr. Joseph Hoch (1815–74) makes the conservatory foundation the main heir of his fortune.
1874: Dr. Hoch dies on 19 September.
1876: The foundation is officially recognized (16 March).
1877: 16 February: Recognition of the foundation's governing body by the Frankfurt Magistrate, Chairman Dr. Heinrich Mumm von Schwarzenstein (until 1890).
June: Joachim Raff elected first director.
1878: 22 September: Opening ceremony in the Frankfurt Saalhof.
20 October: Clara Schumann's 50th anniversary as a performer.
1879: 10 February: first internal student concert.
9 June: Frankfurt visit by Franz Liszt.
1880: Differences between Raff and Julius Stockhausen, who resigns on 1 September.
1882: Joachim Raff dies on 24 June. His successor, Bernhard Scholz, appointed on 11. November.
1883: 21. January: Secession of the followers of Raff, which leads in April to the opening of the Raff-Konservatorium.
21. March: Bernhard Scholz takes over as director.
1884: Julius Stockhausen resigns for a second time (1 April).
September: Opening of the Seminar (Director: Iwan Knorr).
1886: September: Opening of the prep-school: Hans Pfitzner studies (with scholarship) until 1890.
1888: 29. April: Inauguration of the new conservatory building.
1890: Dr. Theodor Mettenheimer takes over the chairmanship of the governors. State subvention for 2 scholarships. Engelbert Humperdincks begins teaching (1890–97).
1892: Clara Schumann retires. The conservatory takes over the training for the scholarships of the Mozart-Foundation.
1896: Clara Schumann dies on 20 May.
1901: Heinrich Hanau becomes chairman of the governors (until 1904).
1904: Emil Sulzbach called to be chairman (until 1923).
1908: Bernhard Scholz resigns. Iwan Knorr becomes director. Opening of the Orchestra School.
1909: Paul Hindemith receives a scholarship and is accepted as a student of Rebner.
1916: Iwan Knorr dies 22 January. In September Waldemar von Baußnern takes over as director.
1918: Opening of the Singing School Seminar.
1921: Tension between the governors and director. Inflation forces the foundation to ask for subventions from the city and the state of Hesse. Plans for a "Hochschule" for Frankfurt (Leo Kestenberg).
1923: 27 April Waldemar von Bausznern retires. Hermann Scherchen applies for the job of director. Resignation of Emil Sulzbach.
1924: Bernhard Sekles appointed director. Opening of the Opera School. Dr. Oswald Feis becomes chairman of the foundation.
1926: Seminar for private music teachers and »Conservatory for listeners of Music« opened.
1928: Opening of the first academic Jazz classes anywhere under the direction of Mátyás Seiber. Concerts held in the "Volksbildungsheim" (Hermann von Schmeidel).
1931: Courses in Children's Musical Pedagogy.
1933: Dismissal of the director Bernhard Sekles and all Jewish and foreign teachers (10 April).
Dr. Hans Rumpf becomes chairman of the foundation and Bertil Wetzelsberger director.

17 October: Opening of the »Hochschule für Musik und Theater der Stadt Frankfurt am Main« without permission of the Ministry of Culture. Growing influence of Artistic Director Hans Meißner.
1936: Hermann Reutter becomes director.
1937: 19 October: Contract between the City of Frankfurt and the foundation Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium concerning the establishing of a state "Hochschule" for Music.
1938: 1 April: Opening of the state "Hochschule". The conservatory downgraded to a prep-school.
1943: 4 October: the Conservatory building is hit by aircraft bombing. Move to the Passavant-Gontard'sche Palais.
1944: February: Passavant-Gontard'sche Palais also destroyed.
1947: Reopening of the Department of Church Music in April and the Department of School Music in the autumn.
1950: Walther Davisson becomes Artistic Director of the "Hochschule".
1951: Recommencing of teaching in a building constructed on the ruins at Eschenheimer Landstr. 4 (Volksbildungsheim [de]). Chairman of the foundation also functions as city councillor.
1954: A board of directors installed for the Musikhochschule and the Conservatory.
1958: Philipp Mohler becomes director of the unified "Hochschule" and Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium.
1967: The Frankfurt Magistrate nullifies the 1937 contract.
1971: Plans for joining the conservatory with the Musikhochschule cause resistance. The conservatory becomes a stepping stone between a music school and the Musikhochschule.
1973: Philipp Mohler resigns as director of the conservatory. Klaus Volk becomes director of the unified Conservatory and Musikhochschule.
1977: Klaus Volk resigns. Prof. Hans Dieter Resch, rector of the "Musikhochschule", becomes provisional director, and in 1978 Alois Kottmann.
1979: Frank Stähle becomes director. Under his direction the conservatory is restructured and again becomes an institute for training professional musicians.
1986: Alterations begin at the Philanthropin, a former Jewish school in Frankfurt's North End. Move to the Philanthropin takes place in stages: 1986–1989.
1989: Move to Philanthropin completed. Opening ceremonies on 9 February. Stadträtin Jutta Ebeling replaces Bernhard Mihm as chairperson of the foundation.
2002: Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium is given the status of Music Academy.
2005: Move to the newly built Education Center Ostend (BZO).
2007: Frank Stähle retires and Werner Wilde becomes provisional director for one year.
2008: Mario Liepe is appointed director.

1878–1882: Joseph Joachim Raff
1883–1908: Bernhard Scholz
1908–1916: Iwan Knorr
1916–1923: Waldemar von Baußnern (also: von Bausznern)
1924–1933: Bernhard Sekles
1933–1936: Bertil Wetzelsberger [de]
1936–1944: Hermann Reutter
1950–1954: Walther Davisson
1954–1958: Helmut Walcha, Erich Flinsch, Gustav Lenzewski [de]
1958–1973: Philipp Mohler [de]
1973–1977: Klaus Volk
1977–1979: Hans Dieter Resch, Alois Kottmann
1979–2007: Frank Stähle
2007–2008: Werner Wilde (Provisional director)
2008–2018: Mario Liepe
2018–2022: Christian Heynisch, Caroline Prassel, Karin Franke-André (directorate)
since 2022: Fabian Rieser, Caroline Prassel, Karin Franke-André (directorate)

Distinguished teachers

1878–1910: Bernhard Cossmann
1878–1904: Hugo Heermann
1878–1880: Carl Heymann
1878–1882: Joachim Raff
1878–1892: Clara Schumann
1878–1880 and 1883–84: Julius Stockhausen
1878–1883: Anton Urspruch
1882–1907: Lazzaro Uzielli
1883–1908: Iwan Knorr
1883–1902: James Kwast
1884–1923: Ernst Engesser
1890–1897: Engelbert Humperdinck
1893–1904: Carl Friedberg (also: Karl)
1894–1906: Hugo Becker
1895–1897: Marie Hanfstängl
1896–1933: Bernhard Sekles
1899–1912: Johannes Hegar
1904–1908: Hermann Zilcher
1904–1907 and 1908–1933: Adolf Rebner
1905–1906: Johannes Messchaert (also: Johan)
1906–1933: Alfred Auerbach [de]
1908–1916 and 1929–1942: Alfred Hoehn
1912–1917: Margarete Dessoff
1926–1928: Hermine Bosetti
1926–1932: Ludwig Rottenberg
1928–1933: Mátyás Seiber (Director of the first academic Jazz department)
1930–1933: Herbert Graf (Opera School)
1933–1938: Helmut Walcha
1933–1942: Kurt Hessenberg
1933–1945: Gerhard Frommel [de]
1936–1940: Anton Biersack
1954–1974: Peter Cahn [de]
1958–19??: Alois Kottmann
1976–1982: Albert Mangelsdorff^[3]
1985–1996: Richard Rudolf Klein
1981–2000: Gerhard Schedl

Distinguished students

1879–1882: Edward MacDowell
1886–1890: Hans Pfitzner
1891–1893 and 1896–1899: Cyril Scott (Frankfurt Group)
1893–1895: Margarete Dessoff
1893–1897: Norman O'Neill (Frankfurt Group)
1894–1896: Henry Balfour Gardiner (Frankfurt Group)
1894–1901: Walter Braunfels
1895–1900: Percy Grainger (Frankfurt Group)
1895–1903: Johanna Senfter
1895–1898: Hans Jelmoli
1897–1901: Roger Quilter (Frankfurt Group)
1898–1903: Boris Hambourg
1900–1901: Ernest Bloch
1901–1902: Otto Klemperer
1903–1909: Reinhard Oppel
1904–1907: Hans Gebhard-Elsaß
1904–1908: Frederick Septimus Kelly
1908–1910: Richard Tauber
1909–1917: Paul Hindemith
1909–1913: Ernst Toch
1913–1916 and 1918–1920: Ottmar Gerster
ca. 1915 : Hans Rosbaud
1917–1931: Kurt Hessenberg
1924–1927: Alexander Schneider

Teachers

Alma Moodie
since 2005: Barbara Zechmeister

Students

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.

[1]
"Raff's Role in Dr. Hoch's Conservatory". Archived from the original on 28 July 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
[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). Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2022.

Stiftung Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium Joseph Hoch zum 100. Todestag, Frankfurt am Main: Kramer, 1974.
Peter Cahn, Das Hoch'sche Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main (1878–1978), Frankfurt am Main: Kramer, 1979. Chronology until 1978 used with kind permission of Dr. Peter Cahn, Frankfurt (translation by Edmund Brownless).
Festschrift 125 Jahre Stiftung Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, 2003.
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, (Nicolas Slonimsky, Hrsg.) New York: G. Schirmer, 1958

Official website
The early reception of Jazz in Germany: Mátyás Seiber and the Jazz Orchester of the Hoch Conservatory in a radio recording from 1931
The first jazz theory class, ever, wasn't offered in the United States—it was at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany
Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium seit Januar Musikakademie / Bericht vom Festakt zur Verleihung des Status einer Akademie (in German) Online Musik Magazin, 6 February 2002
Sonja Stöhr: Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium / Dr. Hoch's Talentschmiede Frankfurter Rundschau 12. April 2016

[1] [1]
"Raff's Role in Dr. Hoch's Conservatory". Archived from the original on 28 July 2016. Retrieved 24 May 2016.

[2] [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.

[albert_mangelsdorff-3] [3]
"albert mangelsdorff". albert mangelsdorff (in German). Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2022.

[1]

[2]

[3]