A description of the activities and constitution of the Prague Conservatory was published in the ongoing series of articles ‘Nynější stav hudby v Čechách vůbec a v Praze zvlášť’ [The present state of music in Bohemia in general and in Prague especially], Lumír 8/10/1857, p.977-978. This described how the institute, founded by the Society for the Advancement of Music in Bohemia, functioned in two parts, namely as an instrumental school and a singing school. The former comprised two departments, higher and lower, the course for each being of three years duration. Instruments taught were violin, violoncello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, french horn, trumpet, trombone and harp. In addition to these practical subjects in the lower class lessons were given in choral singing and in harmony. In the higher class pupils also studied harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, music history and French.

The purpose of the singing school, as noted by the Lumír article, was to educate male and female singers for the theatre. It was divided into two departments, the Concert School [Škola koncertní] (lower) with a two-year course and the Opera School [Škola operní] (higher) with a three-year course. As well as singing pupils studied literature, harmony, piano [although the piano was not taught independently as a solo instrument], declamation, history of music, aesthetics and prosody, Italian and French. Teaching in both parts of the Conservatory was free, but pupils had to pay a fee for entry of 50zl for instrumentalists and 70zl for singers. During the period 1830 to 1852 the Conservatory accepted 844 instrumentalists, 53 male singers and 84 female singers. In 1852 there were 116 new instrumentalists and 6 singers. A certain number of singing school pupils were subsidised by the Society for the Advancement of Music in Bohemia; Tagesbote aus Böhmen 25/5/1857 noted, for instance, that invitations were invited by the Society for 10 fee-exempt places in the Conservatory’s singing school.

A later article in this series published by Lumír 5/11/1857, p.1073 reported that the ‘Orchestra of the Prague Conservatory (44 members) comprises only pupils of the higher classes [of the Conservatory]. This youthful orchestra, which is trained by the director Bedřich Kittl, appears many times in concerts, which the Conservatory arranges. Precision and performance of all nuances [expression and dynamic] is the main characteristic of this orchestra.’