The Instrumental Faculty offers the following specialties: piano, organ, harpsichord, accordion, violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, guitar, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, percussion instruments; for Baroque/period-style music: Baroque violin, Baroque viola, Baroque violoncello, viola da gamba, recorder, flauto traverso, Baroque oboe; for jazz music: piano, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, double bass and percussion. All specialties are available on a full-time or a part-time basis. The system of training provides students with an opportunity to intensively improve their music-playing skills, to master a broad repertoire of works and to frequently present them to the public. The core of the course is made up of classes aimed at perfecting instrument-playing skills, chamber ensembles, the orchestra and orchestral studies. The curriculum also includes theoretical subjects, which ensure that instrumentalists receive a thorough music education, and a group of pedagogical subjects and arts.

Those who complete their Bachelors degree are qualified to teach instrumental instruction at first-level schools of music. Graduates with a Master of Arts degree have a broad range of professional options to choose from, including performance and teaching. Graduates from the Instrumental Faculty perform as soloists, play in symphonic, chamber or opera orchestras, or teach at schools of music at various levels throughout Poland or abroad. Completion of a third-level course of study enables the student to obtain the degree of PhD [doktor].

One of the major subjects throughout the first-level course and during the first year of the second-level course for all students learning to play orchestral instruments is playing in a symphonic orchestra. Participation in an orchestra’s artistic projects gives young instrumentalists an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the nature of work as a member of such a team. The Academy’s Symphonic Orchestra implements five or six projects every academic year. It has been a long-standing tradition of the school that famous conductors and soloists are invited to participate in the concerts. For student-musicians, cooperation with such eminent conductors as Jacek Kaspszyk, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kurt Masur, Marek Pijarowski or Tadeusz Strugała, who have conducted the orchestra in recent years, is an opportunity to gain valuable professional experience. Instrumentalists studying in the first or second year of the first-level course are members of the Chamber Orchestra. The ensemble has a very important educational role, as it prepares students to work on bigger repertoire in a symphonic orchestra, where they will participate during later years of their studies. The Chamber Orchestra gives several performances a year and an important part of its repertoire is made up by operatic works. Because of the close cooperation with the Academy’s Vocal Department, each year the Orchestra participates in the performance of a chamber opera.

Students studying in the jazz section are offered various performance opportunities. They participate in the big band, as well as numerous smaller groups. The big band plays in the standard 16-person ensemble, and plays repertoire consisting of standards and other pieces composed and arranged especially for this ensemble. Numerous concerts of the big-band are warmly received by both the audience and reviewers. Prizes bestowed upon the ensemble from various competitions confirm its high performance level.

Students studying in the section of early music participate in the Baroque Orchestra. Every semester the orchestra prepares one program, presented on concert stages in Wrocław and other cities. The repertoire of the orchestra consists of pieces by masters of the 17th and 18th centuries.