Slovenian pedagogue, pianist, and composer Igor Dekleva has left a significant mark on both the Slovenian and international music scene, a legacy that he continues to actively develop. This thesis presents his life path, music career, compositional output, and pedagogical work. Dekleva began his piano education at the age of twelve in Belgrade, and later continued his studies at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under the mentorship of professor Janko Ravnik. He further refined his skills with professor Hilda Horak and abroad. In 1954, he embarked on his pedagogical career as a piano teacher at the Franc Šturm Music School, where he incorporated his own compositions into his teaching and began developing a textbook based on Slovenian folk songs. At the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, he founded and led a class for piano duo. Alongside his wife Alenka, a pianist, he achieved notable concert success. Additionally, as a soloist and in a duo with German violinist Michael Grube, he performed on both domestic and international stages. Dekleva is the author of over 600 works for piano, chamber ensembles, choir and orchestra. We focused on his contribution to the piano pedagogical literature. 23 textbooks and didactic works for piano students are presented, along with an analysis of two pieces in a didactic context. With his Suite in Colours, intended for younger students in the lower grades of music schools, he sought to engage students by associating colours with various tonalities, thus stimulating their imagination and encouraging them to create their own musical narratives. His collection Pentahon, consisting of five pieces based on Greek mythology, is aimed at high school students and advanced learners of elementary music school, offering them an opportunity to explore the personalities and emotions of Greek deities while developing both technical skills and musical expression. A particularly important contribution of Igor Dekleva is the founding of the Slovenian piano school, which is based on Slovenian folk songs. This is a crucial contribution to the preservation of Slovenian folk musical heritage. At the same time, through his pedagogical work, in which he combined technical, theoretical, and musical elements, Dekleva laid the foundations for the development of contemporary pedagogical approaches in piano education.
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