Conservatories

Beijing has two professional schools for teaching music. The Central Conservatory of Music, funded by the national government's Ministry of Education, and the China Conservatory, under the auspices of Beijing's Bureau of Education.

The Central Conservatory has majors in nearly every field, from performance-oriented instrumental (Western and Chinese instruments), composition, conducting, to music education and musicology. The China Conservatory has most of the same majors, including piano and a Western instrumental program.

The Shanghai Conservatory of Music, founded in 1949, is an institution of higher education under the Ministry of Culture. Its aim is to train undergraduates, postgraduates and doctoral-degree students specialized in the musical arts and performances. SCM is also in charge of running an affiliated music school and a music primary school. At the SCM, there are a number of apartments: the Teaching and Research Department, Piano Department, Composing and Conducting Department, Vocal Department, Folk Music Department, Wind and String Music Department, Department of Musical Science and the Department of Social Sciences.In 2003, SCM added three new departments: Arts Administration Department, Musical Department, and Music Project Department.

Xinghai Conservatory of Music is the only professional music university in southern China. It was formerly the Guangzhou Music Academy founded by China modern music reformers Ma Sicong and Chen Hong in 1932. Xinghai Conservatory of Music has over 300 teaching and research staff, close to 3,000 students in general higher education, and over 1,000 students enrolled in adult higher education. There are eleven departments: composing, musicology, modern music, piano, voice, folk music, orchestral music, music education, pop music, art management and dance. There is also a post-graduate student department, an elementary education department, a continuing education department, a subordinate music middle school and three experimental orchestras which basically cover each professional field such as composing, the composition of technical theories, musicology, music performance and so on, which structure a complete subject system containing teaching, creation, performance and academic study.