Keeping training international has always been a matter of course at the Academy. Many of the faculty come from different countries, and German applicants for teaching posts are expected to have gained experience abroad.

All the Academy’s departments are involved in global co-operation through international projects, workshops with foreign guests, faculty and student exchanges, and participation in intensive programmes. The Academy maintains longstanding partnerships with St Petersburg Conservatory, the Juilliard School in New York and the University of Ohio – a joint project with the University of Leipzig. Furthermore, individual members of teaching staff have numerous links with colleges abroad which have resulted in concrete projects between the Academy and establishments of musical training in countries such as Belgium, Canada, Korea, Austria, Poland, Hungary and the USA.

The Academy also currently co-operates with 39 partners abroad under the EU’s Socrates and Erasmus programmes. Over the past two years these activities have included very successful collaboration with partners from Eastern Europe. Meanwhile foreign students can apply for a grant to study in Leipzig from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Agency) or the Fulbright Commission. Having successfully established close links with the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the University of Seattle, the Academy is keen to further extend and intensify good relations in the USA.

This huge variety of international ties harbours exceptional opportunities for high-level work and study for young musicians within an international community.