More than 150,000 subscribers
The university's successful YouTube channel continues to set standards
The YouTube channel of the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar has surpassed the 150,000 subscriber mark.
It is the only German university channel in the TOP 200 of a global ranking of around 9,600 colleges and universities with a YouTube presence for several years.
Among global music universities, only Berklee College of Music (USA) ranks higher in a list compiled by the Australian company ‘uniRank’. It is followed by the Weimar Music University in 54th place, then the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (Israel) in 88th place with almost 100,000 subscribers and The Juilliard School (USA) in 90th place.
In February 2011, the Weimar Music University launched its YouTube channel, which has been successful from the start, with exclusively professionally produced videos. More than 280 videos of outstanding university events have now been uploaded, which have been viewed a total of almost 50 million times.
You can watch and listen to recordings of symphony and choir concerts, international competitions, master classes, world premieres, jazz concerts, rehearsal features and portraits.
A key factor in the channel's success are the videos from the ‘Transcultural Music Studies’ programme at the Department of Musicology Weimar-Jena. The concert recording of Sona Jobarteh & Band performing West African music alone has now been viewed 20 million times, and some of the videos featuring the Afghan musicians of the ‘Safar’ project have also been viewed more than two million times.
The videos of classical concerts at the university are also in high demand. The undisputed leader here is piano student Alina Bercu, whose interpretation of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 with the university orchestra has been viewed more than four million times. Wagner's ‘Rienzi’ overture with the university orchestra under Nicolás Pasquet has been viewed two million times.
A ‘shooting star’ among the newer videos is the complete recording of all Chopin nocturnes by Prof. Michail Lifits' piano class, which is about to reach half a million views. The high-quality concert recordings and features are produced by the university's own recording studio.
To the channel:www.youtube.com/hfmfranzlisztweimar
To the ranking: https://www.unirank.org/youtube/top-200/
[6 August 2025]