Marianna Bárdiová

PhDr. Marianna Bárdiová, PhD. is a Slovak musicologist, music museum specialist, educator, and cultural events organizer.

Her research focused on regional music historiography from the 19th century, with a specialization in the period 1918–1938, military music, as well as the methodology of music-museum work, museum pedagogy, and music museology. She has been active in expert scriptwriting, reviewing, journalism, compilation and editorial work, programming and event planning, as well as in organizing and moderating cultural events.

She played an active role in the development of musical life in Banská Bystrica. Each year, she conceptually, substantively, and organizationally prepared 10 to 15 musical and cultural events for museum visitors and the wider public, especially in the city of Banská Bystrica, Brezno, and villages of the region (Tajov, Podkonice, Selce, Slovenská Ľupča, Horná Lehota, Podbrezová, Horná Mičiná, Badín, Rimavská Píla, Čerenčany, and others), as well as in Bratislava, Liptovský Mikuláš, Spišská Nová Ves, Starý Smokovec, Vienna, Budapest, Karlsruhe, and other towns and cities.

She gave lectures, hosted discussions with artists, led unconventional museum-based educational sessions, gave opening speeches at exhibition vernissages and at museum events. She contributed as an author to the conceptual planning, programming, organizing, and moderating of seminars, symposia, conferences, concerts, and various multidisciplinary artistic programs. A special category of activities included educational sessions in the museum for primary and secondary school students, as well as for marginalized groups (active elements of music therapy and art therapy), and methodological training days for primary school teachers.

Her lectures primarily focused on composers associated with the Banská Bystrica region (Anton Július Hiray, Ján Egry, Ján Levoslav Bella, Viliam Figuš-Bystrý, Ján Móry, Andrej Očenáš, Ján Cikker, Tibor Andrašovan, Zdenko Mikula) or on thematic areas (The Slovak National Uprising in Music, Musical Life in Banská Bystrica since the 19th Century, Musical and Literary Traditions of Banská Bystrica and the Region, Musical Romanticism and Composers of Banská Bystrica and the Region, The Literary and Music Museum in Banská Bystrica).

She collaborated on organizing conferences and programs with institutions such as the Association of Slovak Composers (Zväz slovenských skladateľov), Slovak Music Union (Slovenská hudobná únia), Slovak Philharmonic (Slovenská filharmónia), Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Ústav hudobnej vedy SAV), Music Fund (Hudobný fond), Slovak National Museum – Music Museum, Bratislava (Slovenské národné múzeum – Hudobné múzeum), Matica slovenská – Archive of Literature and Art (Archív literatúry a umenia), and the Theatre Institute, Bratislava (Divadelný ústav, Bratislava).

She collaborated with Slovak Radio – Rádio Devín (programs: Ars musica, Akcenty, Rezonancie, Musica vocalis, Zvonkohra), Rádio Regina Banská Bystrica (Ars fórum, Stories from the Museum, At Home with Us), Studio Banská Bystrica, Rádio Regina Bratislava (Zrkadlenie), Studio Kontakt, Rádio Rock FM (Bedeker), Radio Burgenland Vienna, Radio Ljubljana, Czechoslovak Radio – Studio Banská Bystrica (Music News), Devín Station (Voice of Music, Voice of Peace), as well as Rádio Okey, Rádio Elán, Rádio Lumen, and Rádio Twist.

From 1991 to 2001, she served as Chair of the Board of Trustees and Manager of the Ján Levoslav Bella Foundation in Banská Bystrica. From 2000 to 2013, she was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ján Cikker Foundation. She completed several study visits in Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Poland, and Germany. She received several awards including the Bronze Badge of the City of Banská Bystrica (1983), the Certificate of Recognition from the Cultural Commission of the District National Committee in Banská Bystrica (1989), the Commemorative Plaque of the City of Liptovský Mikuláš on the 160th anniversary of the birth of Ján Levoslav Bella (2003), the Kvet kultúry a umenia Award of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region (2009), the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Medal, 2nd Class, awarded by the Central Committee of the Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II for promoting the ideals of the Slovak National Uprising and humanism in music, and the Prime Minister’s Medal on the same occasion (2010).