Academy of Music in Kraków

Academy of Music in Kraków Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie
The main building of the Academy at St. Thomas Street in Kraków Old Town; view from Planty Park
Address
ul. św. Tomasza 43 Lesser Poland Kraków, 31-515 Poland
Coordinates	Coordinates: 50°03′42.1″N 19°56′35.9″E / 50.061694°N 19.943306°E / 50.061694; 19.943306
Information
Motto	"Plus ratio quam vis"
Founded	1888
Founder	Władysław Żeleński
Status	Public
Rector	Prof. Stanisław Krawczyński
Affiliations	The European Association of Conservatoires, Association of Baltic Academies of Music, CEEPUS, Socrates-Erasmus
Website	www.amuz.krakow.pl

The Academy of Music in Kraków (Polish: Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie) is a conservatory located in central Kraków, Poland. It is the alma mater of the renowned Polish contemporary composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who was also its Rector for 15 years. The Academy is the only one in Poland to have two winners of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (Halina Czerny-Stefańska and Adam Harasiewicz) as well as a few further prize-winners among its alumni.

The Academy was founded in 1888 by the eminent Polish composer Władysław Żeleński thanks to his artistic connections and patronage of Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, a concert pianist and former pupil of Frédéric Chopin. Until 1945 it operated as a conservatory under the name of Conservatory of the Music Society or, the Cracow Conservatory. During the partitions of Poland, as the region of Lesser Poland and Kraków was ruled by the Austrian Empire – in the late 18th century, it was necessary to gain the consent of the Austrian administration and meet the imperial requirements set for all conservatoires. The newly opened school was inspected by Joseph Dachs and Johann Fuchs, both professors of the Vienna Conservatoire, and received their enthusiastic opinion. It enjoyed a period of great growth in the twenty years between the two wars under directors Wiktor Barabasz and Boleslaw Wallek-Walewski.