Royal Conservatory of Music

The Royal Conservatory of Music stands on H. C. Andersen Boulevard. From the time it was opened, in 1867, it was the most important institution training Norwegian and Danish musicians. Its first director was the great Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade, one of Grieg’s mentors during the 1860s. Gade himself had studied in Leipzig. In 1847, after Mendelssohn’s death, he took over the direction of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. By then, he was already famous around the world, but he turned down the offer of becoming director of the conservatory and in 1848, in connection with the Prussian-Danish War, he returned to Denmark.