Reger is appointed to the Akademie der Tonkunst by Felix Mottl and takes up his post on 1 May, but resigns at the end of the following term in July 1906 due to disagreements with the predominantly conservative teaching staff. Many of his pupils follow him into private lessons.

is feted on concert tours in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland, but in Munich the conflicts with the »New German« circle around Ludwig Thuille, Max Schillings and the critic Rudolf Louis come to a head. At the Tonkünstlerfest of the ADMV in Graz in June, his two piano variation cycles (Bach Variations, Op. 81, Beethoven Variations, Op. 86) are enthusiastically received, but there is a break with Schillings, as a result of which Reger leaves the ADMV in January 1906.

On 28 September Reger’s father; dies; the son promises his mother and sister that he will look after them in the future. Only a week after his father’s funeral, the premiere of Reger’s first symphonic work, the Sinfonietta, Op. 90, under Felix Mottl in Essen on 8 October is well received, but not unanimously approved. Only its repetition under Fritz Steinbach in Cologne brings success. The Sinfonietta is performed a total of 22 times in the first season – in part by important conductors such as (apart from those mentioned) Arthur Nikisch, Hermann Suter and Franz Schalk.

On 8 December, Reger plays ten smaller pieces for the Welte-Mignon reproduction piano system developed the year before.