On 6th October 1864, by decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza the Conservatorium of Musical Declamation was bought into being. The founding of a Romanian institution joined othe initiatives of the same king in 19th-century of Europe, with the emergence og Conservatoria in a range of place – Viena (1817), Lepizig (1843(, Saint Petersburg (1864) and Moscow (1866).
Alexandru Flechtenmacher was named Directory of the newly-established institution. A composer and professor of violin who had studied in Viena or Paris, Flechtenmacher has a clear vision of what Conservatorium should be – a real institution, well organized and useful such that the art if music might flourish and progress in our country, as in the other civilized countries, contributind very greatly to development of good sentiment and of morals.
At the opening of classes an 11th January 1865, nine professors were distributed mond eleven classes, with the mission to train 124 students in accordance with a Regulation adopted in 1864 and a curriculum printed a year later.
A number of major figures in Romanian and international musical history were to study here and go on to shape the destiny of this famous cultural institution.
In time, the courses taught at the Conservatory expanded and diversified.
- In 1900, the first chamber music course commenced
- In 1905, Alfonso Castaldi began to teach the first composition class
- In the inter-war period, classes in counterpoint, orchestration, aesthetics, and the history of music were introduced
- 17 July 1931 marked a crossroads in the history of the Bucharest Conservatory, when, having met all the conditions to become an institution of higher education, it was renamed the Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts
All this was possible thanks to the efforts of the musicians who taught at the Conservatory, in which they were supported by the foremost figure in Romanian music, who was later to become an honorary professor at the Academy: famous violinist, composer, and conductor George Enescu. The great composer was to inspire generation after generation of students.
Years of consolidation and a new era
At just 33 years of ager, Eduard Wachmann was named al Flechtenmacher’s successor to head the Conservatorium in 1869. For a period of 34 years he presided over the destiny if music in the land o Romania.
He directed hid efforts at th make-up f professiorial body, to attract figures capable of producing musicians and actors of the first rank, ant of catching up with – in time, egualling- the level of European musical education.
The new director fougt for the gradual expansion of theacing departaments to new instrumental specializations. Thus, in addition to the existing areas (violin, piano, singing, harmony and elementary principles), classes appeared for brass instruments, for double -bass instruments, for choral singing and for chamber music.
University of music, after the First World War
After the war, the Conservatorium passed into a new period of stability. The young composer Ion Nonna Otescu was entrusted with the leadership, first as Director, in 1919, then in 1931 as a Rector.
Under the protection of King Ferdinand, the Conservatorium was called the Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
With enthusiasm, Otescu led the “crusade” to resolve the problem of a proper seat for the institution. A solution was not, however to prove possible. New addreses thus trace an onward path of the institution to move across the Bucharest map to Brezoianu street and Amzei Place.
The strategy for the first decade of activity after the war was to raise the bar for both the didactic and the artistic level of the school. There was a desire for the training of Royal Academy to be multilateral. The specializations went in different respective directions, for the training of future teachers, instrumentalists, singers or actors. New disciplines continue to appear in the curricula, whereby the same discipline could taught by several proffesors.
The communism was a painful transition
The transformation across the face of Romania left deep scars on the face of the Conservatorium as well, now bereft of a strong leader. The succesive directors Velimir Maximilian and Gheorge Storin wew appointed in a trubled period the was overturn the normal order of things.
The new constrictions delivered powerful blow in August 1948, with the amagation arts institutions into a single body, the Institute of Art, wich included departaments of Theatre, Music, Visual Arts and Choreography, each with the rank of faculty.
A new chapter: modern era
The contemporary period brought with it bot a conservation of the values achieved with great effort in the past, but rather a reconfiguration of Romanian music education on a new basis.
After 1991, ”The Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatorium” becam ”The Academy of Music Bucharest”, with the mandate of Nicolae Beloiu, Rector between 1990-1992.
As the next Rector, over two terms from 1992 to 2000, the violonis Petre Lefterescu, professor of chamber music and a distinguished musician, led the institution through grievous post-revolutionary tims, changing its name to the ”University of Music Bucharest”.
Between 2000 and 2008 the Rector was Dan Buciu, a brilliant composer, theorist and musical critic, professor of harmony and head of the department of composition in the 1990s, who opened a new chapter in the modernization of the university.
In 2008 , the Senate of UNMB elected Dan Dediu as Rector, composer, musicologist and pianist and teacher of composition and head of department of composition.
Currently, the National University of Music Bucharest is co-directed by Diana Moș, who was elected Rector in 2016 and subsequently won a second term.
She is the author of the book entitled Introduction to the hermeneutics of musical discourse (2008), written as a result of her doctoral studies under the supervision of Professor Nicolae Brânduș and her scientific advisor, Professor Dinu Ciocan.
In 2010 she won the “George Enescu” scholarship offered by the Romanian Cultural Institute for an internship at the Cité des Arts in Paris.
Since 2016 he has held the position of Vice President of the National Council of Rectors (CNR).