Master in Composition and musical theory

The Academy of Music in Kraków offers this Master's program in Composition and Musical Theory, taught in English over four semesters. The Academy is among the oldest music higher education institutions in Poland and in Europe, founded as a Conservatory by the Music Society in Kraków in 1888, an organization established through the efforts of Duchess Marcelina Czartoryska and Władysław Żeleński. For more than 120 years, the Academy's stated mission has been the education of musicians as humanists working within a broad context of musical culture and art, summed up in the motto per academiam ad astra. This mission is pursued through teaching musical craftsmanship in a master-student relationship, developing students' gifts and talents in a versatile way, cultivating sensitivity to beauty where tradition meets contemporary practice, opening students to various forms of cultural activity including culture formation, and developing artistic taste alongside the ability to evaluate cultural phenomena. Composition and musical theory as a field of study trains musicians to create original musical works and to analyze the structural and historical foundations of music, covering areas such as harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, form, and the history of musical style. Graduates typically pursue careers as composers, arrangers, music theorists, teachers, or musicologists, and many continue into further academic study or professional performance and composition work. A four-semester Master's program of this kind builds on undergraduate training in music, deepening both the technical craft of composition and the analytical tools used to understand musical works across different periods and traditions.