Alžbeta Lukáčová

Mgr. Alžbeta Lukáčová, PhD. is a Slovak ethnomusicologist, dramaturge, and musician. She studied musicology at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava and later earned her PhD at the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Since 2012, she has been working as a dramaturge at the State Opera in Banská Bystrica, while also engaging in a variety of music-related activities.

From 2007 to 2011, she worked as an ethnomusicologist at the Central Slovak Museum – Museum of Folk Dance in Banská Bystrica. She regularly conducts field research focused on traditional folk music in Slovakia, its cultural contexts, and preservation. She has studied folk and evangelical spiritual songs in the village of Rejdová, collaborating with folk singer Mária Brdárska-Janoška, and conducted several years of research on the repertoire of Slovaks living in the Lowland region, particularly in the village of Pivnica in the Bačka region of Vojvodina, Serbia. Together with Ján Kolesár, she published an extensive book in 2023 on traditional wedding customs in Rejdová. She also authored a book about her great-grandfather Samko Dudík, a well-known primáš (lead violinist) from Myjava.

She is also involved in publishing projects focused on traditional music. Alžbeta Lukáčová is active as an editor, scriptwriter, and presenter for both radio and television programs, as well as a director of audio recordings and music journalist. Each year, she authors music and vocal programs for the most important folklore festivals in Slovakia and Moravia. She has worked as a music editor and presenter of folk broadcasts for Radio Lumen and Radio Regina Banská Bystrica. She also served as a dramaturge for the Folk Instruments Orchestra of Slovak Radio, for which she prepared more than 100 radio recordings. In 2012, she collaborated dramaturgically with SĽUK (The Slovak State Traditional Dance Company) on the production Vinšujeme vám... vianočná hudba Slovákov a národnostných menšín na Slovensku (We Wish You... Christmas Music of Slovaks and National Minorities in Slovakia).

Lukáčová is also involved in adapting opera librettos and creating poetic translations of operettas. She is the author of the only authorized poetic translation of Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, which premiered at the State Opera in Banská Bystrica in 2007.

She plays the cimbalom, viola, and heligónka (diatonic button accordion), sings, and is a member of the world music group Banda, with which she has released three studio albums. Their third album, Telegrafy (2018), received the Radio_Head Award for Best Slovak Album in the World Music & Folk category in 2018.

Membership in expert and professional committees: Member of juries for national rounds of music and dance folklore competitions (since 2002) Member of the program board of Horehronské dni spevu a tanca in Heľpa (2002–2017) Member of the program board of the Kokavské koliesko folklore festival in Kokava nad Rimavicou (2003–2016) Member of the program board of the International Folklore Festival in Myjava (since 2006) Member of the grant commission at the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic in the program for Intangible Cultural Heritage and Cultural-Educational Activities (2007–2015) Member of the Committee for Assessing Nominations of Elements Proposed for the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO (2012–?).

She also worked in academia, teaching at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, where she gave lectures such as Course in Ethnomusicology and Special Seminar in Ethnomusicology. In 2011, she won 1st place in the Competition of Young Researchers of the Slovak Academy of Sciences under 35 and also received the President of the Slovak Republic Award from Ivan Gašparovič for outstanding scientific contribution.