Weiss von Berenfels from Petrinja) on their repertoire. With the publication of Stanković's work, new harmonizations of the Serbian chant became eligible for the singers and the conductors of the church choirs from Vienna, Trieste, Zadar, Kotor, Petrinja to Pančevo, Timișoara and Belgrade. Brief but distinctive activity of Kornelije Stanković as a conductor of the First Belgrade Singing Society (1863–1864) particularly contributed to the affirmation of the Serbian national musical creativity. As a successor of Milan Milovuk, Stanković made a significant turn over on the repertoire by introducing new harmonized Serbian folk melodies instead of foreign songs. He founded a "preparatory choir", in order to provide extra, theoretical education to his singers. He also made a plan for founding the first music school in Belgrade. Performances Besides from arranging and publishing, Stanković also performed his transcriptions of traditional folk and church melodies as a pianist, with his friend, the painter and excellent baritone Stevan Todorović in Vienna, Pest, Buda, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Sremski Karlovci, Sombor, Pančevo, Sremska Mitrovica, Šabac, Valjevo, Kragujevac. He also performed his own, artistic piano compositions. As a conductor, he performed with the Belgrade Singing Society, the church choir in Buda and with foreign singers in Vienna. The very special success came with two concerts of Stanković's music in the famous Vienna concert hall (Musikverein) in 1855 and 1861. The prefaces in his firstly published collections of folk and church songs are classics about church chant in the 19th century, pearls of writings about Serbian vocal music and folk musical inheritance. Honours Stanković was honoured to receive the Order of Saint Stanislas from the Russian tsar for his melographic and creative work. The Serbian Church Choral Society of Pančevo, "Humanitätsverein" from Zagreb and Viennese "Musikverein", "Preodnica" and other youth societies gave him the title of an honorary member. He was respected and loved by his collaborators, acquaintances, friends and students. Stanković's devoted work on preservation and nurturing the Serbian folk creativity made an important, deep trace in the Serbian musical and cultural history. His name was celebrated through numerous studies and articles, by founding musical societies and other musical institutions which were named by him. On the initiative of prof. dr Danica Petrović, in 1993 in Sremski Karlovci started the work of the Summer school of church chant "In memory of Kornelije". On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Stanković's birth (1981), Serbian Academy of Sciences