The German School of Music Weimar (GSMW) is the first overseas German music academy. It was founded in 2005 by the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar together with the South Korean Kangnam University in Yongin near Seoul. The GSMW offers the Korean-German Bachelor course “Major in Music” for violin, violoncello, flute, clarinet and piano. Viola also became available in 2008. On 1 March 2008 the Korean pianist and professor for piano and chamber music, Woohyung Yang, became director of the music school. “We have a great chance of success in Korea, because everything German is popular there. German food, German cars and of course, German music,” she says. She wants to make the school even more well-known and offer more Masters courses (see interview).
Twelve students can participate in each of the six subjects. Six professors teach each of the main subjects in German at their practical music classes in keeping with the German study curriculum. The subsidiary subjects are taught according to the Korean curriculum and in Korean. German as a foreign language is taught parallel to the study courses. Studies at the GSMW last for eight semesters. Admission depends on students passing the aptitude tests in their particular artistic subject. There is an intermediary exam after four semesters and students also have to demonstrate their knowledge of German. Selected students can then spend their fifth and sixth semesters in Weimar. The final examination is taken after the eighth semester.
