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1971
Graduation from the Conservatory in Žilina (accordion performance)
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1973 – 1977
Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, Germany (accordion performance)
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1980 – 1981
Assistant Lecturer – Department of Music Education, Faculty of Education in Nitra
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1981 – 1988
Assistant Lecturer – Department of Music Education, Faculty of Education, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Prešov (after 1997 Prešov University in Prešov); 1991 – 1997 Assistant Lecturer; 1994 – 1997 Head of the Department of Music Education, Faculty of Education, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Prešov and Vice-Dean for International Relations; 1987 – 1992 Doctoral studies in Theory and History of Music at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
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1988 – 1991
Director of the State Philharmonic Košice
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1997 – 2020
Work at the Department of Music Education, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, Prešov University in Prešov, later Department of Music, Institute of Music and Visual Arts Education, Faculty of Arts, Prešov University; 1992 – 2009 Representative of Central and Eastern European countries in the Presidency of the European Association for Music Education (EAS), National Coordinator for Slovakia
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2003 – 2015
Associate Professor at the University of Rzeszów (Institute of Music, University of Rzeszów)
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2004
Associate Professor, Music and Dance Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava
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2011
Appointed Professor, inauguration at the University of Ostrava in the field of Music Theory and Pedagogy
Prof. Mgr. art. Irena Medňanská, PhD. was a Slovak musicologist, university professor, music publicist, and a leading figure in the organization and development of musical culture.She contributed significantly to the advancement and promotion of Slovak music education and cultural life.
Her scholarly research and publications focused on music pedagogy, music aesthetics, and music sociology. Among her most important works are the monographs Kinderchormusik aus dem Schaffen slowakischer Komponisten nach 1945 (Children’s Choral Music from the Works of Slovak Composers after 1945, 1993) and Systematika hudobnej pedagogiky (Systematics of Music Pedagogy, 2010). She published concert reviews and critiques in both regional and professional periodicals, such as Učiteľské noviny (Teachers’ News) and Hudobný život (Musical Life).
Irena Medňanská worked across all levels of arts education – from elementary art schools (including the Musikschule Nordhausen in Bleicherode, Germany), through conservatories, to teacher training faculties. Her primary academic affiliation was the Department of Music Education at the Faculty of Education of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Prešov, later Prešov University, where she spent the majority of her professional career. She was active not only in teaching, but also in organizing numerous events and activities for educators and students both in Slovakia and abroad.
From 2000 to 2011, she served as a teacher in continuing education programs for music teachers of elementary schools and basic art schools at the Methodological-Pedagogical Center in Prešov. Since 2012, she held the position of lecturer, program coordinator, and reviewer at the same institution.
She completed study visits mainly in German-speaking countries and delivered more than 120 lectures at EAS congresses, universities, and music academies in 16 European countries (Austria, Germany, France, Slovenia, Belgium, Sweden, the Czech Republic, among others).
She was a member of the International Society for Integrative Music Pedagogy, the board of the European Association for Music in Schools (EAS), the international editorial board of Hudební výchova (2008), as well as editorial boards of several Polish academic journals.
She also served as Director of the State Philharmonic in Košice for three years.
For her work and contributions to the development of music education, Irena Medňanská received numerous awards at the university, regional, and national levels. She was the recipient of an honorary medal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic for developing cooperation between universities in the project “Most k spolupráci” (Bridge to Cooperation, 2000). In recognition of her teaching, publishing, international, and managerial achievements, Prof. Medňanská’s curriculum vitae was included in the personnel section of the European lexicon of music pedagogy (Neues Lexikon der Musikpädagogik, Gustav Bosse Verlag Kassel, 2001). Among her highest honors was the Great Medal of St. Gorazd, awarded by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic in 2012.