Enrollment Ceremony
The University of Music Welcomes 189 New Students from Around the World
The University of Music extends a warm welcome to its “freshmen”: For the 2026/27 winter semester, 189 new students will begin their studies in Weimar. They were officially enrolled on Monday, October 12, in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus during a festive ceremony featuring plenty of music. They were welcomed by University President Prof. Anne-Kathrin Lindig and Franziska Frasch, the chair of the Student Council. This brings the total number of young musicians, music educators, and musicologists currently studying in this European City of Culture to 877.
Of the 189 newly enrolled students, 151 are studying in Weimar for the first time—the others are transitioning, for example, from a bachelor’s to a master’s program. The 189 “freshmen” consist of 95 German and 114 international students. They come to Weimar from all over the world—including all regions of Asia, South America, and many European countries.
This time, the largest increases were recorded by the Department of Wind Instruments and Percussion, with 43 students, and the Weimar-Jena Department of Musicology (including Arts Management), with a total of 35 students. Next are the Department of Music Education and Church Music with 23 new students, followed by the Departments of String Instruments and Harp and of Voice | Vocal Studies and Theatre with 19 each, the Department of Piano with 12, the Department of Guitar with 11, the Department of Conducting and Opera répétiteur studies with 10, and the Department of New Music and Jazz with 9 new students.
A total of 18 students from all over Europe are coming to the Weimar Music University through mobility programs (e.g., Erasmus+). There was plenty of music during the enrollment ceremony, which began at 6:00 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus. In addition to the first movement from Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s stormy Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49, the program featured songs by Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf, as well as two movements from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36.
[October 13, 2026]