Slovenian town, under Austrian rule until 1919. Records of church music go back to the 13th century. In the late 16th century, when many musicians left the Slovenian region, among them was the Maribor native Daniel Lagkhner. Music of the Baroque period and later is held in the archives of the Catholic diocese and of the main parish church, the latter including manuscripts of the composer Valentin Lechner, who worked in Maribor between 1800 and 1805. There is documentary evidence of professional musicians playing at social gatherings from the Baroque era onwards. Subsequent musical institutions included the Casinoverein (1823), the Musikverein (1825), which had a music school, and the Männergesangverein, which branched off from the Musikverein in 1846 and continued to exist for another 90 years. Liszt played in the knights' hall of Count Brandis's castle on 16 June 1846, and Wolf was at the Gymnasium during the years 1873–5.
The Slovenksa Čitalnica (1861) provided a centre for Slovenian culture up to the outbreak of World War I, during which period the development of Slovenian music was fostered by the Ceciljansko Društvo (Cecilian Society), Slovensko Bralno in Pevsko Društvo (Slovenian Reading and Singing Society) and Katoliško Pevsko Društvo (Catholic Singing Society). The association Glasbena Matica (1919–41) presided over the golden years of Slovenian music in Maribor; it had a mixed choir, a symphony orchestra and a conservatory (later two), and provided a forum for some of the most highly regarded Slovenian composers in roles as conductors, teachers or critics. Slavko Osterc began his musical training in Maribor as a pupil of Emerik Beran, and composed his first pieces there.
In 1946 the Koncertna Poslovalnica (Concert Agency) took control. Demetrij Žebre, the first postwar conductor of the opera, formed his players into the Maribor PO (1952–65), which was refounded in 1993 to give about eight concerts a year. A junior conservatory (now the Srednja Glasbena Šola Maribor, or School of Music and Ballet) was founded in 1945, and in 1964 a department of music education was instituted at the Academy of Education; this department was transferred to the university in 1987.
MANICA ŠPENDAL