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1939
graduated from grammar school in Prešov
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1939 – 1944
Faculty of Philosophy of the Comenius University in Bratislava (German language, philosophy)
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1945 – 1951
head of the music department of the University Library in Bratislava
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1951 – 1989
lectured at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (music theory and aesthetic)
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1953
senior lecturer
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1953 – 1955
dean of the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts
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1956 – 1962
pro-rector of the Academy of Performing Arts
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1965
professor
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1965 – 1969
rector of the Academy of Performing Arts
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1970 – 1972, 1982 – 1986
head of the Union of Slovak Composers
“At the beginning of his artistic career Ferenczy dedicated himself to music-critical activities, in which he promoted music of the masters of the 20th century – I. Stravinsky and B. Bartók. This orientation was in the early 1950s under sharp attacks from representatives of social realism. As a theorist he dealt mainly with musical aesthetics and psychology of music. He provided the first alternative to the representatives of so-called Slovak musical modernism and brought needed sobriety and relevance not only in theory but also in musical expression. In the 1970s and 1980s he was one of the leading representative of Slovak musical life.”
(BOKES, Vladimír: Oto Ferenczy. In: 100 slovenských skladateľov. Ed. Marián Jurík, Peter Zagar. Bratislava : Národné hudobné centrum, 1998, p. 90.)