The Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the founder and incubator of modern professional music education in China, is renowned at home and abroad as an outstanding representative of music education in China and is hailed as the "cradle of musicians". The Shanghai Conservatory of Music, formerly known as the National Conservatory of Music, was founded in Shanghai on November 27, 1927 by Mr. CAI Yuanpei and Mr. Xiao Youmei. Mr. CAI Yuanpei, the first president, was the first independent national higher music institution in China. With the educational philosophy of "supporting the West and establishing China, integrating application", it established the professional system and discipline system of professional music education in China. It is now an institution jointly built by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Shanghai Municipal Government. In 2017 and 2022, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music was listed among the first batch of universities to be included in the new round of the "Double First-Class" initiative. In 2018 and 2022, the school was twice selected as a high-level local university construction school in Shanghai. The current Party Secretary is Pei Xiaoqian and the current dean is Liao Changyong.
There are now 15 teaching units, namely the Department of Composition and Conducting, the Department of Musicology, the Department of Orchestral Instruments, the Department of Vocal and Opera, the Department of Piano, the Department of Ethnic Music, the Department of Music Education, the Department of Music Engineering, the Department of Arts Management, the Department of Modern Instrumental and Percussion, the Department of Music Drama, the School of Digital Media Art, the School of Marxism, the Department of Public Basic, and the Affiliated Middle School (Primary School). The discipline system is complete. It is the first professional music college in the country to have three first-level discipline doctoral programs in "Music and Dance studies", "Art theory" and "drama and Film and Television studies", forming a comprehensive music discipline system of "four-wheel drive" of music composition, music performance, music theory and music application. Among them, "Music and Dance Studies" is an A+ discipline of the Ministry of Education and has ranked first in the "Best Discipline in China" of Shanghairanking for three consecutive years. The school offers undergraduate education and postgraduate education (master's and doctoral), has two postdoctoral research stations, and has affiliated middle school and primary school. It has established a "big, medium and small" integrated art talent cultivation system with Chinese characteristics.
