The Academy of Music in Kraków is one of the oldest music higher education units in Poland and in Europe. It was founded as a Conservatory by the Music Society in Kraków – an organization that came into being owing to the efforts of Duchess Marcelina Czartoryska and Władysław Żeleński in February 1888. The mission of the Academy of Music in Kraków – from the beginning of its existence (i.e. for over 120 years) – has been the education of musicians – humanists in a broad context of musical culture and art, in accordance with the motto: per academiam ad astra, through:
- teaching musical craftsmanship in a master – student relation;
- versatile development of gifts and talents;
- teaching sensitivity to beauty, where tradition meets the contemporary, datum meets novum, the past meets the present;
- opening to various forms of cultural activity, including culture formation;
- development of artistic taste and of the ability to evaluate cultural phenomena.