* 1937
Born 8 November 1937 in Novo Mesto/Slovenia. Studied composition under M.Kozina and M.Bravničar at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, graduating in 1963 and going on to pursue postgraduate studies under M. Bravničar (completed in 1967); he also studied conducting at the Academy of Music under Dr. D.Švara. Between 1963 and 1982 he taught at the Ljubljana Secondary School of Music and Ballet, and between 1982 and 1995 he was an editor at Radio Slovenia. Since October 1995 he has been an assistant professor of composition at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. He was the director of the student Popular Choir (1960-1965) and conductor of the Musical Society Choir (1969-1971). Throughout his career he has been involved in music criticism, essay-writing and journalism: from 1958 to 1967 he wrote for the student paper Tribuna, and from 1963 to 1970 for Mladina. Since 1970 he has been the chief music critic at Delo, the biggest newspaper in Slovenia. As a composer Mihelcic initially focused on lighter forms of music such as jazz and popular songs. He soon moved away from this and developed his own modern form of musical expression. His convincing musicality has brought him considerable success both in Slovenia and abroad, with concerts and with recordings.
