Peter Zagar

Peter Zagar is a Slovak composer who, in addition to his own work, is also involved in a wide range of activities in the field of musical culture. He acquired the basics of his musical education while studying at grammar school, where he devoted himself to playing the piano and studied composition privately; he then went on to study composition at the Academy of Performing Arts. From 1987 to 1992, he worked as a music producer at Slovak Radio, where he participated in the preparation and production of music recordings. He later worked as an editor at the Slovak Philharmonic. He completed professional stays in France and an internship at the GRAME center. For a time, he worked as a freelancer, was a scholarship holder of the ArtsLink program, and worked for many years at the Music Center Slovakia in Bratislava, where he headed the publishing department.

"In Zagar’s musical language there is a characteristic attempt at a synthesis of traditional ideals of composition with modern testimonial values. He subjects his compositional premises, which are frequently derived from works of older style periods, to transformations; when this “double logic” is applied, the result is a work which may be understood as a modern commentary on a stabilised cultural value. The starting point for this may be a minimalist form (music for video), a Brahmsian concept of chamber music (Trio for Viola, Cello and Piano), or a traditional form of Christian musical culture (Stabat mater; Pater noster; Apocalypsis Iohannis). Zagar’s works do not bring polystylistic principles to the forefront; rather there is a synthetic purpose, bridging premises that were originally conflicting."

(GODÁR, Vladimír: Peter Zagar. In: A Hundred Slovak Composers. Eds. Marián Jurík, Peter Zagar. Bratislava : National Music Centre Slovakia, 1998, p. 287.)