Peter Kolman
PETER KOLMAN (1937–2022) – Slovak composer who lived in Austria. He studied composition at the Conservatory in Bratislava and the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU). He belonged to the generation of Slovak avant-garde composers of the 1960s and was a pioneer of electroacoustic music in Slovakia. Initially, his work drew on traditional compositional styles, but he later turned towards the techniques of the Darmstadt avant-garde. His compositions from the 1960s represent an integration of various techniques and approaches associated with New Music, including Three Piano Pieces in Memory of Arnold Schoenberg (1960), Panegyrikos (1964) and Monumento per 6.000.000 (1964). From 1965 to 1977, he served as head of the Electroacoustic Studio at Bratislava Radio, to whose establishment and development he made a significant contribution. During the period of political Normalisation, performances of his works were banned. In 1977, he emigrated to Austria, where he worked as an editor at the publishing house Universal Edition until 2002. Following the Velvet Revolution, his music once again found its place on the Slovak music scene. Kolman’s works have been performed at numerous international music festivals, including Warsaw Autumn, Steirischer Herbst, the 1965 ISCM Festival in Madrid, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Settimana Internazionale di Palermo, Zenei Hetek (Budapest), Tage Neuer Musik (Hanover), the Festival de Royan and Melos-Étos.