The Lucerne School of Music emerged from the merger of the Konservatorium Luzern, the Akademie für Schul- und Kirchenmusik Luzern and the Jazz Schule Luzern.
1942
Since its founding in 1942, the Dreilinden Luzern Conservatoire Association has been responsible for the Conservatoire Lucerne. It offered a broad vocational instrumental / vocal education and taught conducting and all aspects of theory. The Konservatorium Luzern organised master-classes for the Internationale Musikfestwochen (now the Lucerne Festival), as a consequence of which renowned musicians such as Andràs Schiff and Pierre Boulez became regular guests at the Konservatorium and still come to Lucerne. Its role in the musical life of the town goes back a long way. This enabled both its rapid entrenchment in the music city of Lucerne and connection with the international world of music.
The Academy for School and Church Music was founded in the same year, with its own supporting association. This institution offered training programmes in the areas of school music, church music, singing and theory. The broad educational covered school music- and church music-related disciplines, but in particular every aspect of vocal music from children's choirs to solo singing.
1972
The Jazz School Lucerne was founded by its eponymous supporting association. The Jazz School Lucerne was—and continues to be as the HSLU’s Institute of Jazz and Folk Music—Switzerland’s largest Jazz School. It offered education programmes in Jazz and adjacent musical genres. It had two departments: the general department offered students with previous experience a course that prepared them for the vocational school. The vocational school department offered studies in performance, composition/arrangement and music pedagogy; these concluded with the federally recognised diploma in professional musicianship which entitled holders to work as teachers.
1999
During the fundamental overhaul of the legislation regulating Swiss universities of applied sciences, the three institutions and their respective supporting associations joined strategic and organisational forces and came together as a single music university under the umbrella of the “Lucerne School of Music Foundation”. That same year the Musikhochschule became part of the Fachhochschule Zentralschweiz, which since October 2007 has appeared under the name Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Since 2013 each of the University's Schools has been jointly sponsored by all six Central Swiss cantons. The “Lucerne School of Music Foundation” changed its purpose from supporting association to friends’ association.
2020
On its “Kampus Südpol”, the Lucerne School of Music has moved into a modern and exceptional venue for education, research and concerts. Before that, the School of Music’s various institutes and facilities were spread all across the city of Lucerne. On this new campus, an open, vibrant work and meeting place in the middle of a “culture cluster” emerges for students, employees, partners and music-loving audiences alike. Just next door on the same Kampus Südpol are the homes of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, the City of Lucerne’s music school, the Luzerner Theater and the Südpol Culture Centre.
