Shanghai Conservatory of Music

Shanghai Conservatory of Music is the founder and incubator of modern professional music education in China. It is one of the first batch of "double first-class" universities in the country. As an outstanding representative of Chinese music education, it enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad and is known as the "cradle of musicians".

Shanghai Conservatory of Music was formerly the National Conservatory of Music. It was founded by Mr. Cai Yuanpei and Mr. Xiao Youmei in Shanghai on November 27, 1927. Mr. Cai Yuanpei, the first president, was the first independent national higher music institution in China. With the school-running philosophy of "aiding the West to establish China, and using it as the body", it established the professional system and discipline system of professional music education in China. Since 1956, it has been renamed as a key university directly under the Ministry of Culture. It is now a university jointly established by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Shanghai. In 2017, it was listed as one of the first batch of "double first-class" construction universities in the country and was selected as a high-level local university construction school in Shanghai.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Bei Wen, Meng Bo, Zhong Wangyang, Yang Jin, Jiang Mingdun, Liu Deyu, Xu Aizhu, Zhang Zhijing, Dong Jinping, Sang Xiufan, and Lin Zaiyong successively served as party secretaries, and He Luting, Sang Tong, Jiang Mingdun, Yang Liqing, Xu Shuya, and Lin Zaiyong successively served as deans of our college. The current party secretary is Xu Xu and the dean is Liao Changyong. There are currently departments of composition and conducting, musicology, orchestral, vocal and opera, piano, folk music, music education, music engineering, art management, modern instrumental and percussion, music and drama, digital media college, Marxism College, public basic department, etc. There are 2,841 full-time students, 517 faculty and staff, 317 full-time teachers, 75 international students, and 720 students in the attached middle school and primary school.

Over the past 94 years, Shanghai Conservatory of Music has been adhering to the mission of "cultivating music professionals, importing world music, organizing Chinese music, aiming at the great harmony, and cultivating the spirit and art of national beauty and harmony", adhering to the school motto of "harmony, perseverance, solemnity and sincerity", always sharing the fate of the country and the nation, always standing at the forefront of the development of music and art, creating and continuously improving the education system and school-running model of Chinese professional music art, and shouldering the responsibility of leading the development direction of Chinese professional music. It has accumulated a broad and profound historical heritage, formed a distinctive cultural tradition, produced many famous teachers and masterpieces, and cultivated several generations of outstanding Chinese music leaders, making important contributions to China's music education and cultural construction.

Our college has a complete discipline system. It is the first professional music college in the country to have three first-level doctoral programs in "Music and Dance", "Art Theory" and "Drama and Film and Television", forming a comprehensive music discipline system with "four-wheel drive" of music creation, music performance, music theory and music application. In the fourth round of subject evaluation by the Ministry of Education in 2017, our college's "Music and Dance" received an A+ rating, ranking first in the country; "Art Theory" received a B+ rating, ranking in the top 20% in the country; "Drama and Film Studies" received a B rating, ranking in the top 30% in the country. In the first national professional degree level evaluation in 2018, our college was rated A+ in the art (music) category. The school level covers undergraduate education, graduate education (master's and doctoral), has two postdoctoral research mobile stations, and has an attached middle school and an attached primary school, creating a "large, medium and small" consistent art talent training system with Chinese characteristics.

Our college adheres to the strategy of high-quality education and the teaching tradition of "attaching importance to the basics, strict teaching, and excellence in practice". It has produced several generations of outstanding Chinese composers, music theorists, performing artists, and famous teachers, including Xiao Youmei, Huang Zi, He Luting, Tan Shuzhen, Wei Zhongle, Ding Shande, Qian Renkang, Ma Geshun, Zhou Xiaoyan, Hu Dengtiao, Gao Zhilan, Sang Tong, Caidan Zhuoma, Yu Lina, and Liao Changyong. It has produced a number of far-reaching classic works and national professional textbooks, and many graduates have become leaders and backbone talents of major orchestras and music institutions around the world. Since the reform and opening up, students of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, represented by Liao Changyong, Xu Shuya, Li Jian, Song Siheng, Huang Mengla, Yang Guang, Shen Yang, Sun Yingdi, Wang Zhijiong, Wang Jue, Yu Guanqun, Chen Musheng, Shen Ziyu, etc., have won many awards in the world's top competitions such as Toulouse International Vocal Competition, Domingo Vocal Competition, Besançon International Composition Competition, Margaret Long International Piano Competition, BBC Cardiff International Vocal Competition, Paganini International Violin Competition, Liszt International Piano Competition, Menuhin International Violin Competition, Tchaikovsky International Youth Cello Competition, Totis International Viola Competition, etc., and have won glory for the country. At the same time, teachers and students of Shanghai Conservatory of Music have repeatedly won the highest-level music awards in China, such as the China Music Golden Bell Award, Wenhua Award, CCTV TV Competition, and "Five One Project". In 2018, our college won two second prizes in the National Teaching Achievement Award, 547 people won 633 domestic and international awards, including 187 first prizes, and won many world-class music competitions.

Our college adheres to the people-centered creation orientation, and teachers and students have created a large number of musical masterpieces that represent China and influence the world: piano piece "Shepherd's Flute", violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers", "Long March Symphony", Zhonghu and Symphony Orchestra "Desert Twilight", art song "To the World Expo"... In recent years, original works such as the symphony "Silk Road Dream" and "Ode to Yanhuang", the opera "He Luting", the musical "Sea Sound" and "Dream of Tang Xianzu" have been funded by the National Art Fund. A number of major research projects have been approved as major projects of the National Social Science Fund, major projects of the National Social Science Fund Art, and national cultural innovation projects, and dozens of provincial and ministerial projects and awards have been won. On average, more than 400 art practices and concerts are held each year, including the "Shanghai Spring" International Music Festival, and various concerts are held on world-class platforms in more than 20 countries, singing the "Chinese voice".

Our college has a number of platforms such as creation centers, art centers, research centers, and performance groups that integrate teaching, performance, and art and science creation. It has a national core academic journal "Music Art", a Chinese music discipline highland "He Luting Chinese Music Advanced Research Institute", a music library with rich collections of historical documents and archives, a flexible music research institute, a Shanghai Conservatory of Music Press that continuously launches high-level academic achievements, a national national unity and progress education base "Oriental Musical Instruments Museum", a cultural achievement incubation and social service platform "Shanghai Music Art Development Collaborative Innovation Center", and a professional opera house "Shanghai Conservatory of Music Opera House" with world-class acoustic conditions.

Our college is now a member of the European Music Academy Association and the Pacific Rim Music Academy Association. We have signed strategic cooperation agreements with 33 world-class or first-class music schools in more than 20 countries and regions, including the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, Berklee College of Music, Yale School of Music, Royal Academy of Music, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, University of Music and Drama Hamburg, National Conservatory of Music and Dance Paris, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, etc. We have carried out in-depth inter-school cooperation with 11 of these institutions, and established the Shanghai Conservatory of Music-Emperor's University Joint College, Shanghai Conservatory of Music-Berkeley Contemporary Music Academy, Shanghai Conservatory of Music-Hamburg Advanced Performance Talent Training Mechanism, Shanghai Conservatory of Music International Chamber Music Center, etc. We have successfully held international music events such as the 42nd World Congress of the International Academy of Traditional Music (ICTM) and the 43rd World Computer Music Conference (ICMC).

We have successively appointed famous composers such as Sheng Zhongliang, Tristan Mihaly, Tan Dun, Chen Qigang, Chen Xiaoyong, conductors Simon Rattle, Seiji Ozawa, violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, Midori, Ning Feng, pianists Leon Fleisher, Fou Cong, cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Qin Liwei, vocal singer Renee Fleming as honorary professors and visiting professors of our college.

On November 27, 2017, our college jointly released the "International Discipline Evaluation Indicators of Music and Dance" with 15 world-class music and art colleges in 13 countries and regions including the United States and the United Kingdom, and 10 music colleges in China, and signed the "Excellent Music Education·Shanghai Consensus", taking the lead in providing the "Chinese solution" for the global music discipline evaluation standards.

At present, Shanghai Conservatory of Music is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, taking on national strategies, shouldering cultural missions, and taking "providing first-class music education and creating internationally advanced levels" as its vision. It has clearly defined and adhered to the new era school-running positioning of "the leader of China's higher music education, the supporter of the strategy of building a strong cultural country, the contributor to Shanghai's cultural brand, the engine of the Yangtze River Delta Music Alliance, and the benchmark for international cultural and artistic exchanges". It strives to cultivate high-level music talents with both moral integrity and artistic excellence, both red and expert, international vision, and all-round development, and constantly strives to build a world-class higher professional music school with distinctive Chinese characteristics and important international influence as soon as possible!