Yvetta Kajanová

Prof. Yvetta Kajanová, PhD. is a Slovak musicologist, cultural organizer, publicist, and university professor. She studied musicology at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, and since 1993 she has been teaching there herself, offering courses in music sociology, the history of jazz, rock and popular music, music criticism, and music management. Her research focuses on Slovak jazz, rock, gospel music, modern popular music, and world music.

After completing her university studies, she became active in music journalism and cultural organization. She worked as an editor for the magazine Rytmus at the Obzor publishing house and Slovak Music at the Slovak Music Fund. She managed the concert series Mondays at Klarisky in Bratislava and served for twelve years as the press office manager of the Bratislava Jazz Days festival. In this role, she led press conferences with major international artists and ensembles, including Joe Zawinul, Jean-Luc Ponty, Michel Petrucciani, Take Six, Betty Carter, and others. Between 1984 and 2000, she regularly contributed to magazines and newspapers such as Populár, Smena, Sme, Kultúrny život, Hudobný život, Literárny týždenník, Slovenská hudba, and Adoremus.

Kajanová has published her scholarly work in proceedings such as Musicologica Istropolitana and Musicologica Slovaca and has participated in numerous international conferences. Notable examples include The Symposium of Young Musicologists (Bratislava 1988, 1992, 1994), Die slowakische Musik der Gegenwart (Vienna 1997), Melos-Étos (Bratislava 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005), Populární hudba a škola (Prague 1999), Bach 2000 – Music Between Virgin Forest and Knowledge Society (Regensburg), Jazz Behind the Iron Curtain (Warsaw 2008), Reflection on Popular and Alternative Music in Europe After World War II (Kraków 2009), and Migrating Music: Media, Politics and Style (London 2009).

Yvetta Kajanová was a member of the international research team Jazz in the Eastern Bloc – A Barrier to Cultural Transfer, and in 1997 she organized The University Workshop (a discussion forum for young musicologists on modern popular music and jazz), which continued in 2009 with live music-making and concert performances by students. She has also collaborated with the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In 2012, she was awarded the title of full professor.

She is the author of several books, including Rozhovory s Iljom (1996), Slovník slovenského jazzu (1999), The Book of Slovak Jazz (2000), Gospel Music na Slovensku (2009), Postmoderna v hudbe. Minimal, rock, pop, jazz (2010), K dejinám jazzu (2010), and K dejinám rocku (2010). She currently contributes articles to the online magazine skjazz.sk.