HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT

Since the founding of HAMU in 1945 (with instruction starting a year later), the Czech Wind Instrument School has chronicled an excellent profile of the individual fields of education. At the start these were the instruments of the woodwind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn), with instruction expanded to include the trumpet, trombone and last but not least the tuba.

The ambition of all teaching generations was the great creativity of graduates, as the school had to respect the requirements of practice. Aside from solo and chamber training, maximum emphasis was placed on developing the practices of orchestral play. The instructors, who themselves comprised the elite of Czech performers, managed to establish the final parameters for the graduates through the difficulty of the entrance exam and the subsequent teaching process. It thus comes as no surprise that we encounter graduates of HAMU's wind department in prominent positions of the Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra, the National Theatre and elsewhere. Aside from this practice, graduates of the school have become prominent soloist figures, laureates of international competitions, founders, initiators and artistic directors of many chamber ensembles, and last but not least figures that represent us at the level of musical pedagogy, methodology, public awareness and organisation of musical life.