Ferdinand Klinda

By his versatile activities and achievements Ferdinand Klinda belongs to exceptional personalities of Slovak culture. His name is associated with the development of organ art in Slovakia as well as systematic efforts to gasp organ art as an important part of music culture. At a time when the organ was seen only in connection with Christian churches and it was rejected by ideology, he contributed to not only entrenching organ as a concert instrument in our musical life, but also to the education of several generations of quality organists, construction of new organs, preservation of historical valuable organs, beginning of concert cycles of organ music, as well as the theoretical anchoring of the organ arts in professional literature and by his teaching efforts.

Klinda's activities went beyond the boundaries of one discipline and take place in the history of Slovak music culture.

As a concert artist and expert he is a representative of his instrument in and international context. He developed a rich soloist activity in the domestic and international stages – European and overseas (USA, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Australia), which he combined with professional lectures and seminars. He has performed at major music festivals home and abroad (e.g. Prague Spring, Wiener Festwochen, Festival Estival de Paris, Settimana di Monreale, Bachfest Leipzig, Bachfest Graz, Festival Varna, Zenei Hetek Budapest, Dubrovnik Festival, George Enescu Festival Bucharest, festivals in Moscow, Berlin, Warsaw, Rome, Palermo, Melbourne, St. Albans and others).

He performed with Slovak and foreign musical ensembles (e.g. Orchester Radio Baden-Baden, Berliner Symphoniker, Czech Philharmonic, FOK, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Dresden Philharmonic, Philharmonisches, Orchester Gelsenkirchen, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, MDR Leipzig, Helsinki Philharmonic, Polish State Philharmonic Katowice, Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, Hessiches Rundfunk-Orchester, Moscow Philharmonic, Zagreb Philharmonic, Vilnius Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic and others). He cooperated with leading domestic and foreign conductors Peter Herman Adler, Karel Ančerl, Takashi Asahina, Roberto Benzi, Serge Baudo, Ernst Bour, Meredith Davis, Dean Dixon, Juozas Domarkas, Antal Dorati, János Ferencsik, Günther Herbig, Horst Neumann, Nanse Gum, Arvid Jansons, Zdeněk Košler, Jaroslav Krombholc, György Lehel, Lovro von Matačič, Kurt Masur, Václav Neumann, Libor Pešek, Mario Rossi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, David Shallom, Miles Morgan, Bohdan Wodiczko, Václav Smetáček, Otakar Trhlík, Marcello Viotti, and others).

The repertoire of Ferdinand Klindu includes works of organ literature from the late Renaissance to the present. He performed Slovak organ works of 20th Century, inspired Slovak composers to writing new works for organ, several of them he premiered (Burlas, Grešák, Hrušovský, Jurovský, Kardoš, Malovec, Németh-Šamorínsky, Suchoň, Zeljenka). He edited and prepared for release two volumes of previously unreleased Slovak organ works (1957, 1964). Part of his repertoire were also older compositions found in the collections and archives in Slovakia.

Large part of his repertoire Ferdinand Klinda recorded for various domestic and foreign media, radio and TV stations and film. A lot of his concerts have been broadcast live.

He promoted work of his close friend, French composer Olivier Messiaen. Himself and through his alumni contributed to the comprehensive performance of Messiaen organ works in Bratislava (1988). He was a first interpreter of Messiaen works not only in Slovakia but also throughout the former Eastern Bloc. He is an internationally recognized expert for the work of Messiaen.

Long term teaching activities of Ferdinand Klinda are connected with the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He educated group of organists who have gained victories and awards at international competitions, they proved themselves at the domestic and international stages, or they are teachers (e.g. Emília Dzemjanová, Katarína Hanzelová, Zuzana Janáčková, Eva Kamrlová, Katarína Lelovičová, Ján Vladimír Michalko, Klement Rečlo, Peter Reiffers, Vladimír Rusó, Zlatica Koričánska, Milada Mesíková, Mário Sedlár, Imrich Szabó, Beata Štefánková, Bernadetta Šuňavská, Štefan Ternóczky, Anna Zúriková-Predmerská, and several foreign organists).

Ferdinand Klinda contributed to the promotion and protection of valuable historical organs in Slovakia and in cooperation with the publisher OPUS documented the sound of historical instruments of different regions. He is an author of dispositions of building several concert organs in Slovakia (Slovak Radio Concert Hall, Bratislava Castle, House of Arts Piešťany, House of Arts Žilina, Academy of Performing Arts).

His experiences of many concerts, contact with the instruments abroad, and theoretical knowledge he used in numerous publications (specialized books, articles, studies, publication and revision of compositions), which were published at home and abroad.

In addition to his professions performer and medical doctor (he was also a co-author of studies of the problems of Hematology), he held number of functions – in the former Union of Composers and Concert Artists, led the Programme Committee of Bratislava Music Festival and others.

Ferdinand Klinda was often in juries of world's major organ competitions, led international master courses (Poland, Italy, Ukraine, Germany, Finland, USA) and lectured.