The original facilities were two intact townhouses in Freiburg's largely destroyed city center.

Numerous outstanding instrumental soloists and teachers have taught at the Hochschule, including Harald Genzmer, Aurèle Nicolet, Ulrich Koch, Wolfgang Marschner, Ludwig Doerr, Carl Seemann, Erich and Elma Doflein, Edith Picht-Axenfeld and James Avery.

Following many years of being housed in numerous buildings throughout the city, the Hochschule erected a new state-of-the-art facility in 1983.

The Hochschule maintains international partnerships with the music conservatories in Odesa (Ukraine), Rochester (USA), Warsaw (Poland), Sydney and Kyoto (Japan).

Since the beginning of the 2006/07 winter semester, the Hochschule was one of the first German music conservatories to provide most of its courses in line with the proposed European Bachelor/Master system.