Fran Gerbič

Slovene operatic tenor, composer, and pedagogue. Born October 5, 1840, in Cerknica, died March 29, 1917, in Ljubljana. Finished singing, composition and piano studies in Prague. After a brief singing career in Prague, Croatian writer August Šenoa persuaded him to relocate to Zagreb where he moved in 1869 to become one of the most admired singers of the Croatian National Theatre (Hrvatsko Narodno Kazalište, Zagreb) at the time. In 1880 he moved to Ulm, and then to Lviv. In 1886, he returned to Ljubljana, where he was one of the major figures of musical life and laid the foundations of the Slovene Opera.