The Bydgoszcz Academy of Music is a Polish state music university located in downtown Bydgoszcz. Its origins date back to 1974, as Branch of the High School of Music in Łódź till 1979. From 1979 to 1981, it was established as Bydgoszcz State Higher School of Music, comprising for four departments. Since 1981, it is called Academy of Music – "Feliks Nowowiejski". Patron Since December 1, 1981, the patron of the music university is Feliks Nowowiejski (1877–1946), a Polish composer, conductor, teacher, organist and virtuoso. Living in Poznań since 1919, Feliks Nowowiejski repeatedly visited Bydgoszcz in the interwar period as a conductor and composer. On April 3, 1921, he conducted in Bydgoszcz the local choir "Halka" in a room on Torunska street, and on November 18, 1923, he led a concert in the Seminar Building on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of Polish independence. One of the large-scale event he attended was the unveiling of the Monument to Henryk Sienkiewicz in Bydgoszcz, the first at the time in Poland, on July 31, 1927. During the ceremony, in the presence of President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki, Feliks Nowowiejski conducted a solemn concert performed by the orchestra of the 68th Infantry Regiment and combined choirs of Bydgoszcz and Poznań. History Pre-war traditions Institutionalized teaching traditions for future artists and musicians started in the city here at the beginning of the 20th century. Prior to this time, music teaching habits developed already, in the building of the parochial school as well as schools of the Carmelite Monastery (now defunct, at the location of the Theatre square) and the Jesuit College (now the city hall). In 1904, Arnold Schattschneider (a conductor) and Wilhelm von Winterfeld (a violinist, conductor and composer) founded the Bromberg Conservatory of Music (), at Adam Mickiewicz Alley 9, which performed its activities until 1945. After the restoration of the Second Polish Republic, Bydgoszcz started to develop music education. Main elements of this movement in the years 1925–1927, were the Municipal Institute of Music () and the Municipal Conservatory of Music, founded in 1927 by Zdzislaw Jahnke, a professor in Poznań Conservatory. The Jahnke conservatory, like the German Conservatory of von Winterfefd, led teaching music at three levels (lower, middle and higher-academic), and the structure of the school consisted of 8 departments (singing, piano, orchestral instruments, liturgical music, pipe organ, group music, pedagogical seminar, music theory and other additional subjects).