The founder, first headmaster and teacher was Stevan Mokranjac. One of the most important Serbian composers until now, Stevan Mokranjac was born in Negotin in 1856., and he died in Skoplje in 1914. His secular and spiritual choire compositions are woven into the cultural heritage of our country and they became the part of history but also a part of our everyday music practice inspiring young artists and performers.
"Garlands" (15) represent a kind of chiore suites inspired by folklore of the different parts of the South-slavic countries. The most beautiful "garlands" were made by the melodies and rhythms of Serbia and Macedonia, the Tenth with its theme "Biljana Whitened Her Cloths" being the highlight of Mokranjac’s work. "Garlands" from Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia, together with Litoral melodies and the original choire composition (miniature) "Kozar" represent the basis of his secular choire work. From spiritual works written by the rules of the Ortodox tradition Requiem in F sharp minor, Liturgy and others are still a part of concert repertoire of today.

Establishing the grounds of ethnomusicology by noting down over 300 folk melodies from different parts of the country, Mokranjac made way to other various fields: he was a renownd conductor of the Belgrade Singing Society with which he toured the country and abroad (Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria), founded the String Quartet for which he played himself (1899.) and together with Cvetko Manojlovic and Stanislav Binicki he placed the grounds of Serbian music pedagogy, founding the Sebian Music School (1899.) Today, it is the music school "Mokranjac" in Belgrade in which Mokranjac taught theoretical subjects and was its first director until 1913.