The City of Basel Music Academy (german: Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel) is an institution for

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

, located in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It comprises a music school, college of music, and a center for

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

research and performance.

History

The origins of the City of Basel Music Academy go back to 8 December 1867, when philanthropist Johann Jakob Schäublin-Vögtlin founded a music school (''Allgemeine Musikschule'') in Basel with support from the Gesellschaft für das Gute und Gemeinnützige (GGG).

Selmar Bagge Selmar Bagge (30 June 1823 – 16 July 1896) was a German composer, music journalist and academic. Biography Bagge was born in Coburg in 1823; his father Johann Bagge was rector of the Latin school there. In 1837 he went to Prague Conservatory, st ...

was the school's first director (1868-1896). The composer Hans Huber was director from 1896 to 1918, and in 1905 he oversaw the addition of a college of music ( Hochschule für Musik Basel), the first conservatory in German-speaking Switzerland. Conductor

Hans Münch Hans Wilhelm Münch (14 May 1911 – 6 December 2001), also known as The Good Man of Auschwitz, was a German Nazi Party member who worked as an SS doctor during World War II at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1943 to 1945 in German occup ...

served as the school's director from 1935–1947. In 1954 the school incorporated the

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis The Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (SCB) is a music academy and research institution located in Basel, Switzerland, that focuses on early music and historically informed performance. Faculty at the school have organized performing ensembles that have ...

, one of the world's leading

institutions. Together the three institutions formed the City of Basel Music Academy. In 1999 the Academy achieved the status of a university of applied sciences, or ''Fachhochschule'', and in October of that year the vocational department of the Basel Jazz School was incorporated into the Academy's college of music. In 2001 the Academy added a fourth institution, the Basic Course in Music (''Musikalischer Grundkurs''). In 2008 the Academy became an affiliate of the regional University of Applied Sciences Northwest Switzerland (''Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz'').

Notable alumni

Arie Vardi Arie Vardi ( he, אריה ורדי; born 1937) is a classical pianist, conductor, and piano pedagogue. He is laureate of the Israel Prize in 2017. Biography Vardi was born in Tel Aviv and graduated from the Rubin Academy (renamed the Buchmann-Me ...

Nicolas Altstaedt Nicolas Altstaedt (born 1982) is a German classical cellist. Biography and career Altstaedt was born in Heidelberg, Germany. As a soloist, conductor, and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporar ...

Sol Gabetta Sol Gabetta (born 18 April 1981) is an Argentine cellist. The daughter of Andrés Gabetta and Irène Timacheff-Gabetta, she has French and Russian ancestry. Her brother Andrés is a baroque violinist. Career Gabetta began to learn violin at ...

Endre Granat Endre Granat (born August 3, 1937) is an American violinist. He is regarded as the most recorded violinist and concertmaster working in the studios today. Early life and education Granat studied at the Franz Liszt Academy, Jacobs School of Mus ...

Werner Güra Werner Güra (born 1964) is a German classical tenor in opera, concert and Lied, also an academic teacher in Zurich. Career Güra was born in Munich. He studied at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. He continued his studies with Kurt Wi ...

Márton Illés Márton Illés (born 12 December 1975 in Budapest), is a Hungarian composer and pianist. Illés received musical training in piano, composition and percussion in Győr from 1981 to 1994. In 1993 he spent one academical term at the conservatory of ...

Martina Janková Martina Janková (born 1972, Orlová) is a Czech operatic soprano. She has been successful in a number of opera contests, including winning first prize at the competition Neue Stimmen in Gütersloh. She has been a member of the Zürich Opera since ...

Nuria Rial Núria Rial (born 1975 in Manresa, Catalonia, Spain) is a Spanish soprano. In recent years, Rial has specialized in the music of the renaissance and baroque eras, such as the works of Handel and Monteverdi. Her repertoire also includes Johann Seb ...

Jan Schultsz Jan Schultsz (born 1965 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch pianist and conductor. He is an accompanist in lieder recitals. Biography Schultsz first took piano lessons at the age of 4 and commenced French horn, horn lessons at the age of 10. Emphasis was l ...

Simone Zgraggen Simone Zgraggen (born 8 August 1975 in Altdorf, Switzerland) is a Swiss violinist and professor at Freiburg University of Music. Career Simone Zgraggen began playing the violin at the age of five. She studied from 1991 to 1994 at Lucerne Unive ...

External links

Official website

(in German)
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz
{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1954 Music schools in Switzerland Organisations based in Basel 1954 establishments in Switzerland