Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac

In memoriam

Musician.  He gained recognition as one of the founders of the Serbian School of Music, the country's first music school, founded in 1899. Called the "Father of Serbian Music," he founded the first Serbian string quartet. Born in a tiny village as Stevan Stojanović, he was named "Mokranjac." He was born two days after his father's death, leaving a widowed mother with four young children. He learned to play the violin at age ten, sang in the local choir, and later learned the cello. Starting at age 20 with a scholarship, he studied music in Germany and Italy as well as in his homeland before becoming the conductor of the Belgrade Choir Society in 1887. He held this position until World War I. Serving as a cultural ambassador of Serbia, his choir toured Eastern Europe with a production of Serbian folk songs.  Between 1883 and 1909, he composed "Rukoveti," a production of fifteen rhapsodies. He married one of the young singers in the choir, Marija, and the couple had a son. In 1908, he published his opus of 10 Orthodox religious melodies, "Octoechoes," which has become a stable for the Serbian Orthodox Church. For these compositions, he was awarded the Order of St. Sava by the Serbian Orthodox Church.  From the Kingdom of Montenegro, he received the Order of Prince Danilo I, the Ottoman Order of Osmaieh, and the Bulgarian Order of Saint Alexander.  His image with a violin was on Yugoslavian currency, and he is included in the list of the 100 most prominent Serbs. In 1906, he was elected as an associate member of the Serbian Royal Academy of Science and Arts, and in 1911, he was made a member of the French Academy of the Arts. His health started to decline in 1912. At the start of World War I, he escaped the rages of war in Belgrade for North Macedonia, where he died in his sleep and was buried. In 1934, his remains were repatriated to Belgrade for burial. After his death, the music school was renamed Mokranjac School of Music in his honor, and his residence was converted to a museum, where celebrations of his life, known as "Mokranjac days," have occurred annually since 1965.

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