Karol Medňanský

Assoc. Prof. Mgr. art. Karol Medňanský, PhD. is a Slovak musicologist, instrumentalist (cello, viola da gamba), music organizer, and university lecturer. His professional activities span the areas of performance art, musicology, organization, and education. He studied cello at the Conservatory in Žilina and later at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar. After completing studies at the Academy of Early Music in Brno, he focused on historically informed performance and playing the viola da gamba. He later obtained his doctoral degree and habilitation in the field of Music Theory and History.

Medňanský has worked as an orchestral musician in Germany, Egypt, and Slovakia (Nová scéna in Bratislava, the Operetta Company of the Jonáš Záborský Theatre in Prešov) and as a chamber musician in Germany (Nordhausen String Quartet), Hungary (Visegrad Baroque Trio), and Poland (Collegium musicum Rzeszów). In 1994, he co-founded the Prešov-based ensemble Musica Historica, which focused on historically informed performances of Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical music. They performed numerous concerts in Slovakia and abroad, including collaborations with mezzo-soprano Ida Kirilová and pianist Noémi Maczelka.

He has received several international scholarships: – Jiratschek Stipendium at the Austrian National Library in Vienna – DAAD Scholarship, including a 3-month study residency at the Bach Archive in Leipzig and viola da gamba studies at the Hochschule für Musik Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig (with Prof. Siegfried Pank) – Scholarship from the Austrian Institute for Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Bratislava branch, for a residency in Vienna at the Ernst Krenek Institute and the Arnold Schönberg Center – Participation in the Socrates/Erasmus programs at Universität Lüneburg and Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg (Germany) – CEEPUS program at the University of Szeged (Hungary) – Erasmus+ program, study visit to the Telemann Centre in Magdeburg – IP Erasmus stay at the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic).

As a performer, educator, and conductor, Medňanský also worked with the university chamber ensemble Camerata Academica, organizing several premieres of works by Slovak composers. Notably, the ensemble premiered In memoriam Ladislava Burlasa, a piece dedicated to them. He also led and played in the Prešov String Quartet, contributing to the promotion of string quartets by Mikuláš Moyzes.

In his academic work, Medňanský focuses primarily on Bach scholarship, the viola da gamba, the Reformation and its influence on musical development, the works of Mikuláš Moyzes, and Slovak music of the 20th and 21st centuries. He authored the university textbooks The Second Viennese School and its Influence on the Development of Slovak Music (2010) and The Poetics of Music in the 17th and 18th Centuries (2010), along with several monographs and numerous scholarly and popular articles. He has received several prestigious awards for his publications.

In composition, Karol Medňanský focuses on chamber works for accordion, string instruments, or flute. His composition In the Children’s Room won first place at the International Composition Competition in Szczecinek, Poland (1979). He founded and organized the Academic Chamber Concerts festival from 2004 to 2017, where he also worked as a dramaturge. The festival featured 65 concerts with performances by renowned artists and ensembles from Slovakia and abroad. He also co-organized the concert series Early Music Concerts in Prešov.

Memberships in professional organizations and societies: Neue Bachgesellschaft in Leipzig (Germany), Telemann Society in Magdeburg (Germany), Viola da Gamba Society in Winterthur (Switzerland), Czech Music Society – Early Music Society in Prague, Slovak Musicological Association in Bratislava (Presidency member since 2003), Prešov Music Society SÚZVUK (Presidency member since 2003).

He has lectured at the Catholic University in Ružomberok, the University of Žilina, the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, the University of Lüneburg (Germany), Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (Germany), the University of Szeged (Hungary), the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar (Germany), the University of Rzeszów (Poland), and the University of Ostrava (Czech Republic).

As a teacher, he focuses on music-theoretical disciplines, the history of European music, and instrumental and artistic practices (accordion, cello, wind instruments, chamber music, and orchestral performance).

“Karol Medňanský accompanied the concert with spoken commentary, sharing many fascinating insights about the history of the performed works and the often dramatic life stories of their composers. As a performer, he chose demanding solo sonatas by G. F. Telemann, K. F. Abel, J. M. Molter, and J. M. Leffloth. He also took on challenging basso continuo parts, accompanying soprano works by J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel, and A. Caldara. He confirmed his qualities as a musically sensitive and perceptive chamber musician and as an intellectually inclined, contemplative interpreter of solo repertoire. His velvety mezzo voce and subtle dynamic work were particularly captivating.”
(PaedDr. Slávka Kopčáková, PhD., in Musica Historica Prešov: Farewell Concert with Hope and Without Tears, in Na pulze, journal of the University of Prešov, 2010)