Marjan Kozina
Illustration — Marjan Kozina in 1923 Marjan Kozina (4 June 1907 – 19 June 1966) was a Slovene composer. He is considered one of the most important Slovene composers of the 20th century. His best known works include a symphony, composed in stages through the late 1940s; the opera Equinox, completed in 1943; two ballets from the early 1950s, and the music for the film On Our Own Land (Na svoji zemlji), which he later arranged into a suite for orchestra.
Marjan Kozina

This image is available from the Digital Library of Slovenia under the reference number ELSGN6RX This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still r · Public domain
- Born
- 1907 · Novo Mesto.
- Died
- 1966 · Novo Mesto.
- Nationality
- Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia · Kingdom of Yugoslavia · Kingdom of Serbs and Croats and Slovenes
- Occupation
- composer · partisan · writer · music educator · translator
- Fields
- music · translating activity
- Education
- Novo Mesto Grammar School
- Honours
- Prešeren Award · Trdina Award
- Languages
- Slovene
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Marjan Kozina in 1923 Marjan Kozina (4 June 1907 – 19 June 1966) was a Slovene composer. He is considered one of the most important Slovene composers of the 20th century. His best known works include a symphony, composed in stages through the late 1940s; the opera Equinox, completed in 1943; two ballets from the early 1950s, and the music for the film On Our Own Land (Na svoji zemlji), which he later arranged into a suite for orchestra.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Marjan Kozina (1907–1966) was a composer, music educator and partisan, among other activities and a national of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The composer was born and died in Novo Mesto.
Marjan Kozina studied at Novo Mesto Grammar School. The composer was a member of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Marjan Kozina was active in music and translating activity.
Languages used include Slovene. The composer received Prešeren Award and Trdina Award.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Marjan Kozina. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3513280 · wikipedia · Marjan Kozina
In this article
Life
Life
Kozina was born to a musical family in Novo Mesto, then part of Austria-Hungary. In Ljubljana, Kozina began studying philosophy and mathematics and in the same time also piano and violin, but later completely turned to the study of music. He graduated from composition in Vienna in 1930, and completed the studies of conducting and composition also in Prague. After his return from Prague he worked for a short time (1932–34) at Ljubljana and Maribor Opera, and then worked at Maribor Music Society (Glasbena matica Maribor). From 1940 until 1943 and from 1945 until 1947, he worked as a music teacher at the Academy of Music in Belgrade. In World War II, his house was bombed in an air raid and his wife imprisoned by the Gestapo. In September 1943, after the capitulation of Italy, he joined the Slovene Partisans. After the liberation, in 1948, he became the first manager of the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, and held the post until 1951, when he became a professor at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. In 1953, he was elected a regular member of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts. He lived and created in Novo Mesto and Trška Gora. He died in Novo Mesto after a heavy illness.
Work
Work
From 1940 until 1943, Kozina completed the score and the libretto of his only opera Equinox (Ekvinokcij), based on the eponymous play by the Croatian–Serbian playwright Ivo Vojnović. Before his leaving to the Partisans, he buried it in the garden of his parents in order to prevent its loss during the war. It was first performed in May 1946 at the Ljubljana Opera House, and in 1948 he was bestowed the Prešeren Award for it. The major Kozina's contribution to the Slovene symphonic music was a symphony comprising four movements, which are actually individual symphonic poems and were composed separately. They are titled White Carniola (Bela krajina; 1946), Mount Ilova (Ilova gora, 1947), To the Fallen (Padlim, 1948), and Towards the Sea (Proti morju, 1949). Although the symphony was rarely performed in entirety, the first movement was one of the most often conducted Slovene symphonic composition of the post-war times. Musicians performed it in all sorts of musical ensembles including accordion and brass ensembles. Its optimism represented the will to live of the entire nation. Besides it, Kozina composed the ballets The Tales About Gorjanci (Gorjanske bajke; 1952–1961) and Diptihon (1952), and the music for the films On Our Own Land (1948), Kekec (1951), Valley of Peace (1956), and others. Kozina also devoted himself to writing and translating. He wrote about music, aesthetics, the role of art and the artist in contemporary society, he translated a series of novels, wrote itineraries, reviews, polemics, and popular expert essays.
Recognition
Recognition
In 1948, Kozina was bestowed the Prešeren Award for his opera Equinox, and in 1956, Trdina Award (the municipal award by Novo Mesto) as well as the Golden Arena for Best Film Music for the music of the Valley of Peace film. The highest Slovene prize awarded to composers has been named Kozina Award. Since 1970, a street in Novo Mesto has been named Marjan Kozina Street (Ulica Marjana Kozine). In 2007, a production studio from Novo Mesto shot a documentary about Kozina, and a symposium on the composer was held in Novo Mesto. The musical school in Novo Mesto is named after Kozina. In 1971, a bronze bust of the composer, created by Zdenko Kalin, was unveiled in Novo Mesto. On 13 January 2008, the centenary of the Slovene Philharmonics, the great hall of the Philharmonics building in Ljubljana was named after Kozina.
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
Origins and background
Origins and background
The following is established of origins and background. Born in 1907 at Novo Mesto. The register further records that marjan Kozina died in 1966 at Novo Mesto.
Works and production
Works and production
Catalogued output is recorded as follows.
Reception and standing
The scholarly and documentary record stands as follows.

Na svoji zemlji 1948
Del Fabro · This image is available from the Digital Library of Slovenia under the reference number B49SD32M This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still r
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Kozina, Marjan, Oxford Music Online, 2001
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2001
- Marjan Kozina. Prispevek za biografijo, Musicological Annual, 1971
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1971
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q3513280: Marjan Kozina
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Marjan Kozina”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Slovene Press Agency. Novo mesto Pays Tribute to Composer Kozina. 30 March 2007.
- 2.Ulica Marjana Kozine. Kamra: Digitalized Cultural Heritage of Slovenian Regions. 8 October 2012.
- 3.Rijavec, Andrej. Twentieth Century Slovene Composers. Edicije Drustva Slovenskih Skladateljev. 45. 1975.
- 4.Kozina Award.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Kozina, Marjan, Oxford Music Online, 2001Crossref registry
Institutional witnessscholarly publication
Marjan Kozina. Prispevek za biografijo, Musicological Annual, 1971Crossref registry
Institutional witnessInstitutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q3513280: Marjan KozinaWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,438 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Mariya NishiuchiPerson
- Mariya TakeuchiPerson
- MarizaPerson
- Mariza KochPerson
- Marjan MozetichPerson
- Marjo TalPerson
- Marjorie Newell RobbPerson
- Marjorie WestburyPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Marjan Kozina?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.