In the early 1900s, when the Serbian state was being recreated and urban population was gradually growing, people became more interested in music education.
There were also some pedagogical intentions to teach music, and in future that would represent the grounds where music literacy would fully develop.
During its long history, Pozarevac was fortunate enough to become the second residence of prince Milos Obrenovic. Due to that, Pozarevac was one of the most famous and wealthiest towns in Serbia at the time.
People became more and more interested in cultural development. At the time, traditional culture was very strong, but there was also a growing intention for music culture to get closer to European trends.
Even before the First World War, there was an Orchestra for entertainment and development in Pozarevac.
After the war, at the beginning of the century, many cultural clubs started working, and they gathered music lovers and young talents eager to learn.
Therefore there was a need for the institution where they could study. Music was first taught at Pozarevac Grammar school and at the cultural club Abrasevic.

After the Second World War, some marvelous military bandsmen came to Pozarevac: Maksimilijan Miksik, Dane Narandzic, Josip Frankovic and Vasko Stoicevski.
Enthusiasm of those people was amazing and a years-long dream of many citizens from Pozarevac could finally come true. To everyone’s excitement, on August 12th 1949, Executive Board of the National Council in Pozarevac, made a decision to establish Primary Music School. The school began working on 1st April 1950, under the proposal of Ministry of Education and Culture, when the Housing Management of the National Council, adopted a resolution to open a music school and to allocate the building of the City Power company ‘Svetlost’ to the school.
The first principal of the music school was Nadan Sepic, music teacher at the Pozarevac Grammar school. The second principal was Maksimilijan Miksik, eminent musician, violin teacher educated at the Conservatorium in Prague and the first violin of the Moscow Opera House.
Music school in Pozarevac encountered various problems and difficulties in the beginning: lack of school premises, material and technical conditions, school equipment and teaching devices. The  most important and the most difficult problem was the lack of the teaching staff.
That year 120 students enrolled at three departments: piano-violin, cello, contrabass-clarinet, flute and trumpet.
At the beginning of the school year of 1950/51, there were 8 teachers and the principal working in the school.

The first piano in the school was a gift by Ignjat Bajloni, who owned a mill in Malo Crnice. The interesting thing is that the piano has an Old Serbia emblem engraved in it. The piano was probably made for the Court and it is still functional today.
In spite of all the difficulties, it was recorded that the school gave its first public performance on March 4 1951.

In 1958, the Association of music lovers was founded, with music creativity as its main goal. The association was closely connected with music school, and it consisted of amateurs, people who had some musical abilities, even though they were involved in other professions. They played classical music and gave concerts all over Pozarevac district. The association worked until 1984.
In 1964, under the proposal of Council of Education in the Municipality Council Pozarevac, name of the school was changed into School for Primary and Secondary Music Education ‘Stevan Mokranjac’.
Number of the students depended on the capacities of the school. Due to the growing interest, there was a need for more premises and more teachers.
In 1982, when all the conditions were satisfied, the school was moved to another building, where it is situated till this very day.

Another reason for increasing a number of teachers in the school, was the founding of Secondary music school in 1983. The school first worked as a part of an Education centre ‘Jovan Serbanovic’. The school was ratified in 1984, and it became School for Primary and Secondary Music Education ‘Stevan Mokranjac’. Secondary music school was opened due largely to school principal Julijana Krpucic and the principal of Grammar School Ljubisa Obradovic.
In 1985 Orchestra of Accordions was founded. For the past 2 decades, it has achieved many successes.
In 1987 Secondary school Choir was founded, and it represented a base for the City Ladies Choir Barili.
In 1994 Primary school Choir was founded, and it is now one of the most successful choirs in the country.
In 2003 String Orchestra was founded, and in 2005, Jazz Orchestra.
There are 4 orchestras, 2 choirs and numerous chamber and ethno ensembles working in the school. They regularly take part at various competitions and achieve significant results.
In 2006, together with other music schools, ‘Kosta Manojlovic’ Smederevo, ‘Stevan Mokranjac’ Kraljevo, ‘Jovan Bandur’, Pancevo, ‘Davorin Jenko’ and ‘Vatroslav Lisinski’ from Belgrade, the school founded Symphony Orchestra. In January 2007, the orchestra gave its first performance at the Centre of Culture in Pozarevac. The orchestra was conducted by Nenad Petkovic. Top fifteen students from our school play in the orchestra.

When the secondary music school was opened, more children became interested in receiving music education, so it was necessary for the school to open offshoots in other towns in Branicevo district.
The first offshoot was opened in Kostolac in 1990/91. The offshoot now has its own premises and great working conditions.
In 1994, prof. Zoran Maric was appointed the school principal. Very ambitiously he started opening new offshoots of music school.
In 1994/95 the school opened its offshoot in Kucevo. At first it worked in the premises of primary school ‘Ugrin Brankovic’. In 2004/05, the offshoot started working in its own premises.
In 1995/96 an offshoot was opened in Municipality Malo Crnice. The offshoot is situated next to primary school ‘Mosa Pijade’, in its own premises built solely for music school.
The last offshoot was opened in Veliko Gradiste in 1997. Today, the school uses premises of Veliko Gradiste Grammar school.
That same year, the school received the Charter of Culture for its extraordinary achievements.

In the past few years, the school was redeveloped and enlarged, and the number of music instruments was doubled.
In 1996 the school was enlarged by another floor in the new part of the school.
In 1998 loft was adapted in order to make a staff room and new classrooms.
In 2000 Summer stage with 150 seats was built and that represented a great contribution to music life in Pozarevac. The school is the initiator of the local event called ‘Cultural Summer’. This event is organized by the school and other centres of culture in the town.
In 2001 cellar was adapted and redecorated and Club for the students and teachers was opened.
In 2005 Concert Hall with 150 seats was renovated and redeveloped. Since 2004, concerts of guest artists from the country and abroad are held there and they are highly attended.
In 2006 loft was adapted and the school got 5 classrooms and a library.
Today the school has about 90 employees and more than 650 students, 11 departments piano, accordion, guitar, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, French horn, vocal art, and a music kindergarten.
In the secondary school, 80 students are studying in two departments – music associate and a music performer.

The school and town of Pozarevac have organized The Festival of Music and Ballet Schools (within the Association of Music Schools of Serbia) three times, which involves thousands of participants. The last festival was in 1998 and 75 schools participated.
Since 2003 the school has organized and hosted the Solfeggio Competition called ‘Meeting of Young Solfeggists’. Numerous students and their teachers from many schools in Serbia participate in this competition.
The school has organized Competition of Woodwinds at the end of April since 2004. It is one of the biggest competitions of this kind in the country. In 2006 there were 300 participants from Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland and Bulgaria.
The school has its own recording studio and every year a CD called ‘The best students’ is released. The school also has video equipment so all the most important events are recorded. School paper ‘Prima Vista’ is published once or twice a year.
The school library has a fund of over 6000 units– books, music sheets, textbooks and magazines. The school also has over 2000 recording mediums. There are also a lot of music instruments that students can rent.
Students and teachers from the school give over 70 performances per year, and they take part in all the local events. The school also gives its own Annual and New Year Concerts in Pozarevac, and in its offshoots (15 concerts per year altogether). Over 60 concerts per year are held, including public classes and school performances.

For the past few years, students and their teachers have won numerous awards and commendations at national and international competitions for their solo performances and playing in chamber and other ensembles. In 1999, Srdjan Vukasinovic, under the mentorship of Miroslav Jankeh, won the first prize at the world championship for accordion etc.
During the school year 2007/08, 158 awards were won.
The most respectable teachers from the school have often worked as members of eminent juries in the country and abroad, e.g. Perisa Stanojevic, Miroslav Jankeh, Snezana Milovanovic, Zoran Maric etc.
The school is still making efforts to upgrade classes, to make the working space more pleasant and working conditions better. Young educated professionals, who were educated in this school, now work here. They constantly make efforts in upgrading music culture. The school collaborates with brother schools ‘Karol Pahor’ Ptuj, Slovenia, and ‘Vlado Milosevic’ Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, and also with the association of 8 schools from Serbia who bear the same name ‘Mokranjac’.
At the end of January 2008, the school organized a guitar competition called ‘Milos Djordjevic Memorial’ which became a part of the great Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade.