Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the composer and Music Director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, founded a Conservatory in the city of Leipzig on 2 April 1843.

The musicians of the Orchestra were obligated to act as teaching staff, a tradition that was unbroken until German reunification in 1990.

They were built 1885–1887 by the architect Hugo Licht in the music quarter of Leipzig, south-west of the city center.

Not until 1924 was the Royal Conservatory renamed into Landeskonservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig, six years after the fall of the Kingdom of Saxony.

The new Great Hall was inaugurated 2001 and 2004 awarded by the Bund Deutscher Architekten,[3] a German architects union.

The college's second premises were opened 2002 and there's an orchestra academy in co-operation with the Gewandhausorchestra since 2004 in order to support top musicians.

The institute has a prominent role in Germany because of Max Reger (1873–1916), Kurt Thomas (1904–1973) and Günther Ramin (1898–1956).

The education program with major in school music is since the winter term of 2006/07 already adapted to the Bologna process and as such leads to a bachelor's degree.