About the Academy



UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA, ACADEMY OF MUSIC (flipbook)

Beyond talent, you need to work hard, be committed to your art, and believe deeply in music. Whatever path you choose — performer, teacher, scholar — the Ljubljana Academy of Music provides you with foundational, comprehensive, rigorous university-level training that will guide you on that journey.

 

STUDY

Achieving artistic and pedagogical excellence is the primary concern and goal of the Ljubljana Academy of Music. It offers a three-to-one student to faculty ratio which means the students receive a lot of individual attention and training. As one of the leading Central European institution of higher music education with an eighty-year history and unique geographical position, the Academy’s music programs offer a comprehensive synthesis of Slavic, Italian, and Germanic music traditions.

The following study programs are available at the Ljubljana Academy of Music:

  • two undergraduate bachelor’s degree programs, each in a three-year program: Musical Arts, with its 26 principal study options, and Music Education.
  • four master’s degree programs, every program lasting two years: Musical Arts (26 principal studies available), Instrumental and Vocal Education (22 principal studies), Music Theory Education (3 principal studies), and Music Education.
  • specialization program Pedagogic and andragogic education in the field of music (PAI) is available in Slovenian language only in either Instrumental and Vocal Module or in Music Theory Module.
  • Preparatory Non-Degree Program is offered for potential academy students to prepare them for the Academy’s demanding entrance examinations, providing necessary instrumental and theoretical background and review. The preparatory program lasts for ten weeks (from the first week of March to the second week of May each year). The program will be conducted in English or Slovene (the decision on the language of implementation will depend on the number of candidates). 
  • Specialization Non-Degree Program (6 modules, 3 directions) is offered for applicants who wish to further develop and targeted upgrade their musical skills.

Applications for state-budget funded studies are available for citizens of most of the European countries. Applicants are accepted for studies in the state-budget group in order of passing the entrance examinations, those who do not pass the entrance exam but produce sufficient results in entrance examinations can apply for self-financed studies.

The principal study, i.e. the primary field of study, is taught individually and consists of three hours per week – two hours of individual lessons and one hour of lessons with the piano accompanist. Other courses are regularly taught in the form of group lectures. Among the available elective courses, there are several from the fields of jazz, early music, contemporary music, and musicology.


PERFORMANCE ACTIVITY

At the Ljubljana Academy of Music, we believe that the student musician develops his or her maximum potential while performing on stage. The concerts are an important and inseparable part of the teaching&learning process and at the same time an ongoing review of the quality of study programs and their content. Arranging more than 150 bigger (and much more departmental and smaller) local and international concerts per year in its Concert Season, the Ljubljana Academy of Music is one of the largest organizers of music events in Slovenia.

Very few other music higher education institutions around the globe offer so much musical production synergy with their local or national music institutions. Slovenia’s leading national orchestras participate in the Tutti concert series of the Academy: the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Slovenian National Theatre Opera & Ballet Ljubljana, the Slovenian National Opera Theatre Maribor Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian Police and Slovenian Army Wind Orchestras, and the Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre. In the same series, the Academy’s Symphony Orchestra, String Orchestra, Wind Orchestra, Big Band, Chamber, and Women’s Choir also give performances. Through the Tutti concert subscription series, more than twenty students per year are selected by audition to perform with these elite, national orchestras as soloists. These orchestras also perform pieces by the students of composition and offer practice opportunities for the conducting students. As a result of this collaboration, senior students are often in high demand as substitutes in the aforementioned orchestras. The orchestra concerts take place in the beautiful concert halls of the main national cultural center Cankarjev dom, the Slovenian Philharmonic Hall in Ljubljana, the Narodni dom in Maribor, the Knight's Hall in Brežice, and in the Academy's Kazina Hall.

Envisioning international collaborations as the main driving force of the future, we continue to encourage music to open dialogues and build strong connections with our partners. In the last fifteen years, the Academy’s symphony orchestra has established its reputation as one of the best European orchestras of its kind. It was invited several times to the Young-Euro-Classic Festival in Berlin’s Konzerthaus. The Academy’s Big Band has very successfully toured Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. The productions of several operas (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Piccini’s La buona figliuola, Coryell’s War and Peace, etc.) have received wide acclaim from the public and critics. Every three years the Academy sponsors an International tour of Mini Operas written by students of composition and performed by students of the vocal and instrument departments (e.g. at the Opera Exam Festival in Budapest, at JAMU Brno, and in the Ljubljana National Opera House)The Ljubljana Academy of Music’s referral service provides gigs for students as soloists or in chamber groups and ensembles.

Each year the students of the Ljubljana Academy of Music have won more than a hundred awards at international and national competitions. There is a high graduate employment rate, and students regularly win auditions for international orchestras each year — such as the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, Nei suoni dei luoghi, CEMAN, EUphony, and others. Within the very rich framework of pedagogical practice, students of the educational programs get an insight into teaching at all levels of musical education. Besides conducting the musical life in Slovenia, many of its alumni have important soloistic careers, perform in the best European symphony orchestras, or lecture at important international institutions. An integrated part of the European-wide Bologna system of comparable standards, the Academy is also a member of a number of international associations and higher music education networks — for example, the AEC, Medinea, CEEC, GMEL, and the Music Education Alliance Across the “Belt and Road”.


RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Interdisciplinary PhD in Humanities and Social Sciences is a joint program offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Arts in collaboration with the Academy of Music, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, and the Faculty of Theology.

The Academy’s research group joins the scientists and researchers who deal with research questions in the fields of subject-related teaching methods, musicology, music theory, composition, and the performance of music. Its aim is to create new knowledge and produce new works of art, which can be directly translated into classroom practice, which can enrich music and cultural life of the general population on the national scale, or which can be used to represent the country’s research activity abroad. Furthermore, its findings open up numerous possibilities for interdisciplinary connections, which improve the quality of life, forge the national identity and enhance the country’s global competitiveness. The research group is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the field of music. Its members collaborate in Slovenian and international projects, program groups, and research networks, participate in academic conferences and symposia home and abroad and take part in music performing projects.

The Division of Music History organizes annual symposia on notable Slovenian composers and music performers and publishes the proceedings in the theme issue of The Journal of Music Education.

The Academy published a special edition of Beethoven’s sixth symphony called the “Ljubljana Facsimile”, which was given and dedicated to the Ljubljana Philharmonic Society by Beethoven himself when he was elected an honorary member in 1819.

The Academy has been a partner in different international projects, as the Erasmus+ SWING project (Synergic Work Incoming New Goals for Higher Education Music Institutions), Erasmus+ Medinea-on-Air, etc., in collaboration with the leading European institutions and networks of higher music education.

Video channel

Na vrh