Vasilije Mokranjac - Mokranjac As A Professor

Mokranjac As A Professor

Vasilije Mokranjac enjoyed a reputation of being a tolerant and broad-minded professor, who did not force his students to write in any particular styles and was willing to support his students in their quest for novel means of artistic expression. His most prominent students were the composers who are recognised as the first Serbian minimalists (and who later went on to form a fluxus-inspired group OPUS 4): Vladimir Tošić, Miroslav Savić, Miodrag Lazarov and Milimir Drašković. However, due to being supportive of his students, Mokranjac got into a confrontation with his former professor Rajičić and other professors of composition (Aleksandar Obradović, Petar Ozghian, Rajko Maksimović) who promoted a more conservative approach to teaching composition. Mokranjac was criticised for defending his students and allowing them to express their artistic goals freely. Aside from these members of the OPUS 4 group, Mokranjac taught other prominent composers, such as Rastislav Kambasković, Vlastimir Trajković, Aleksandar Vujić, Svetlana Maksimović et al.