The Odesa Conservatory was established in 1913 on the foundation of the music college (opened in 1897) of the Odesa branch of the Imperial Russian Music Society.

[1][2] The founder of the conservatory was a prominent Polish composer, conductor and teacher Witold Maliszewski (1873-1939), a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, and a teacher of Mykola Vilinsky and Witold Lutosławski.

[1] In 1934 the Odesa Conservatory was re-established in the previous form.

[2][1] In 1950, it was named after the outstanding opera singer Antonina Nezhdanova.

[1][2] On May 8, 2012, by the decree of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, the conservatory was renamed to "A.V.