Beethoven, Bach, Brahms - the mere melodies of their greatest works stand out as monuments in music history and continue to dominate classical music repertoires centuries after their works were composed. German music schools have long set the bar for excellence by attracting students from around the world and consistently proving their elite status - a term many in education are reluctant to use.

While many young musicians participate in the rigorous performance auditions that weed out the superb from the excellent, just one out of 40 applicants receives a coveted spot at a German music school. And students rarely drop out.

"We can barely dig our way out from under the applications," said Pamela Steiner, a representative for the Hanns Eisler Hochschule fuer Musik in Berlin, in a recent interview with Die Zeit.

And just as other universities formulate plans to attract more students from outside of Germany, music schools already pride themselves on their large numbers of international students. An average of one in four students at Germany’s music schools is from abroad, while at several schools, that figure is approaching 50%.

"In music, we have a reputation that other disciplines could only hope for," said Hermann Rauhe, president of the Hamburg Music and Theater School. "Germany is the number one," he added, speaking about music education in that country.

Germany also garners high praise from music students for its subsidized cultural programs, which allow them to buy extra tickets last-minute to the performances of some of the greatest orchestras in the world for prices as low as 5 Eur.
Republished with permission from "The Week in Germany"