Stevan Hristić | Origin of Street Names

Stevan Hristić (1885 – 1958) was one of the most significant Serbian composers, the founder of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, a music educator, academic, and the creator of perhaps the most famous music-dramatic work in the history of Serbian classical music - the ballet "Ohrid Legend."

He was born in Belgrade, into a distinguished civil servant family, whose members were prominent ministers in the Obrenović government.

Drawn to music from an early age, he received his first knowledge of the art from the great Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac.

By studying at the renowned Leipzig Conservatory, he acquired a high musical education and the title of composer and conductor. He further perfected his skills at the academies of the greatest European metropolises, and prior to the First World War, he returned to Belgrade and began working on the development of musical art and the improvement of cultural life in Belgrade and Serbia as a whole.

During the period between the two World Wars, he was one of the founders of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and its chief conductor for a full 11 years. Almost simultaneously, he was also the conductor of the National Theatre Opera and its director.

Furthermore, Stevan Hristić was one of the founders of the Belgrade Music Academy and a long-time professor there.

The pinnacle of his artistic and pedagogical work is certainly his induction into the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts as a permanent member, as well as his role as the director of the Musicological Institute within the same institution.

Stevan Hristić's oeuvre could be classified within the era of late Romanticism, where elements of folkloric music and modern European classical music are intertwined. He introduced himself to the Serbian music scene with the music for the play "Čučuk Stana," written as early as 1907, but his most significant work (as it turned out) was composed in his later years.

Namely, among the diverse body of work that spanned decades, encompassing stage, spiritual, choral, and concert compositions, the ballet "Ohrid Legend" stands out as the most significant. It was first performed in 1947. A love story in two acts and four scenes, it is based on historical and folk traditions and has been staged over a thousand times on theater stages throughout Europe.

As a prominent artist, Stevan Hristić received multiple awards for his contributions to the development of culture in our region. In 1950, he became the first president of the Association of Composers of Serbia.

He passed away at the age of 74 in Belgrade and was buried in a magnificent tomb in the Alley of Greats at the New Cemetery in Belgrade.

In addition to numerous music schools throughout Serbia, the name of the great composer Stevan Hristić is now carried by streets in several cities in Serbia.