During his Viennese stay, he founded the Slovene Choir Society in Vienna, which was sponsored by the national liberal politician Valentin Zarnik.

In 1862, he moved to the town of Pančevo in southern Vojvodina, now in Serbia, but then in the Hungarian part of the Danube monarchy, where he worked as the choirmaster of the local Serbian Orthodox Church.

He later moved on the other side of the border to Belgrade, where he worked as a composer in the Serbian National Theatre.

In 1860, he composed the music for the patriotic song Naprej, zastava Slave for the lyrics written by his cousin Simon Jenko.

He also composed several other Slovene patriotic poems, which later became a crucial part of the Slovenian national canon.