In 1841, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, a group of middle-class citizens founded the Cathedral Music Association and the Mozarteum. With this they intended to give added momentum to musical life in Salzburg by organising concerts, and also they wanted to ensure that there were enough young instrumentalists for the church services in Salzburg Cathedral. In 1870 the International Mozarteum Foundation was founded to encourage young talented musicians, and in 1881 it took over the Mozarteum Public Music School. In 1914 the Mozarteum was recognised as a Conservatory under public law; in 1922 it was nationalised for financial reasons, and in 1939 it was transformed into the Reichshochschule Mozarteum. At the end of the Second World War the Mozarteum was temporarily continued under the title ‘Music High School’. In 1953 the Music High School became an academy and from 1970 it was known as the Mozarteum Academy of Music and Performing Art in Salzburg. In 1998, as a result of the reform of Austrian universities, the former academy of music became the now renowned Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.
