Folklore ensemble Kopaničiar is a group of people, in which the traditions of their birth region have deep roots in their hearts. These traditions have become a lifestyle, hobby or even job for many of them and they bring happiness and a fulfilment of their life. What they love most of all is the music, singing and dancing, because of that they don’t mind to pay their time and effort into the discovery of things left to be discovered, aiming to show that beauty on stage.

Kopaničiar was founded in 1955 by a group of enthusiasts. Despite their early troubles they endured, fueled by their love of folklore and with that they helped to save the beauty of folk songs and dances, traditions and habits of Myjava. To fulfil the original thought of the founding members, to save Myjava’s traditions for future generations, many more people had to contribute. The period before the Velvet Revolution had a lot of shortcomings, it was a good time for folklore. Back then it was in the state’s interest to develop traditional national culture.

From the year 1958, the ensemble has taken part of the most important Slovak and foreign folklore festivals.Notable festivals were f.e. in Austria, Hungary, Germany, France, Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium or Bulgaria.

At the end of the seventy’s, the requirements on the artistic level from the state were much higher. In 1976 the NOC in Bratislava created a new categorization of folklore ensembles by quality. Kopaničiar was put into category B in December 1976, which meant that it could frequently attend Slovak and international competitions.

In 1985 in Bratislava was the ensemble promoted to category A, which was a very important event in the history of Kopaničiar, because there weren’t many category A ensembles. New posibillities cropped up, some of them were: Portugal (1985), Brazil (1993), Egypt (1994), Tunis (1998), Canada (2000), South Korea (2005), Venezuela (2006) and many more.

During it’s existence has the ensemble been awarded many prizes, diplomas and honorable mentions. It has become the laureate of multiple Slovakian competitions in creating choreographies for folklore ensembles. Out of all the awards, these are noteworthy:
1965 - State order for exemplary work on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of founding the ensemble, awarded by president of the Slovak republic
1996 - Diploma and award of II. Laureate - awarded by NOC in Bratislava
1998 - Prize of Mikuláš Senka - Folklore festival in Dubnica nad Váhom
2005 - Medal of Daniel Gabriel Lichard, awarded by general director of NOC on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of founding the ensemble and long time great work with the growth of folklore movement in Slovakia

Music of Kopaničiar was always based on arrangements from original, traditional play of Myjava’s bandmasters. In dances it were multiple significant figures, which created choreographies, sometimes with the help of the best dancers in the ensemble. Kopaničiar aims it’s activity mostly at processing Myjava’s folk dances and songs. It seeks to preserve traditional dances like slovenčina, starobabská, slovenská, uklakovaný, verbunk a čardáš. In it's work it has also scooped some of the treasures of folklore in the regions of Horehronie, Podpoľanie, Trenčín and Zamutov.

The history and expansion of the folk song Myjavská veža is very closely associated with the life of the folklore ensemble Kopaničiar. The song became an anthem of the ensemble and all Myjava’s citizens very soon. Apart from the anthem, another symbol of the ensemble is an adornment with typical blue embroidery on pale fabric.
Folklore ensemble Kopaničiar belongs to the most important artistic ensembles in Slovakia, which spread folk traditions and keep the rare folk heritage alive for next generations.