The University of Arts in Belgrade was founded in 1957 as an association of four art faculties: Faculty of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, Faculty of Applied Arts and Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Today, it has 2,700 students, more than 470 teaching staff and 70 study programs in diverse arts disciplines, at undergraduate, master and doctoral levels. With the aim to be recognized as a staging ground for new ideas, the University of Arts has developed specific ways of focusing and directing arts education, unifying artistic and theoretical research and providing a platform for interdisciplinary research. Recently launched practice-based doctoral programs in arts have elevated the University of Arts in Belgrade to an outstanding higher education institution in the region.
The Faculty of Music was founded in 1937 as the Music Academy by the decree of the Ministry of Education passed on March 31, 1937. The date of commencement of work was November 21, 1937, when the opening ceremony and consecration took place. By establishing this institution, for the first time a system of musical education was completed within the national framework. In 1957, at the time of the twentieth anniversary of the existence of the high art schools, the Academy of Arts was formed. Postgraduate studies at the Music Academy were introduced in 1957. In 1973, the Academy changed its name to the Faculty of Music, at the same time as the other three art schools. Their association gained the status of an independent University of Arts in Belgrade. Since 1985, the Faculty offers the PhD degree in the fields of musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory and music pedagogy. At the Department of Composition, teaching was modernized with the opening of an electronic studio.
Study programs at the Faculty of Music have always progressed simultaneously with the developments in the field of European higher education. Since 2006, the Faculty has reorganized in accordance with the principles of the Bologna Declaration. As part of this reorganization, doctoral studies in art were introduced. The studies at the Faculty of Music are organized into thirteen departments: composition, conducting, singing, piano, string instruments, wind instruments, musicology, ethnomusicology, music pedagogy, music theory, chamber music, jazz and popular music, and the polyinstrumental department (harpsichord, harp, organ, guitar, percussion).
The activities of student ensembles – The Symphony Orchestra and the Mixed Choir, as well as a number of chamber ensembles, have a very important role in the work of the Faculty, among which the Academic Women’s Choir Collegium Musicum (the only academic female choir in Serbia, active since 1971) and The String Chamber Orchestra, named after his founder and first conductor Dušan Skovran, are the most important. The Ensemble for New Music was founded in 1992, specializing in performing contemporary music, especially in the framework of the International Review of the Composers. In 2004, Camerata Serbica was founded as an orchestra with prominent soloists, professors and assistant professors of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. There is also an activity of the Chamber Opera and the Madrigal Choir. The Faculty of Music’s engagement in the field of international projects is quite diverse. Aside from a significant number of bilateral international agreements and ongoing Erasmus partnerships, Faculty has coordinated one Tempus project (4th generation). Currently the Faculty is involved in three Erasmus+ projects and two projects of international orchestras.