Zdenka Bernátová

PhDr. Zdenka Bernátová was a Slovak music editor and musicologist.

After graduating in Musicology and History from the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, she began working for Czechoslovak Radio. She remained there throughout her professional career until her retirement in 1994. Even after retiring, she continued to collaborate regularly with Slovak Radio until 2002.

Zdenka Bernátová was a member of the editorial department for symphonic, operatic, and chamber music and made a significant contribution to the promotion and popularization of classical music in Slovakia. As an author and editor, she produced numerous music-oriented radio programmes combining spoken word and music, working closely with prominent composers, performers, musicologists, and critics. She sought to engage listeners actively, achieving particular success through music quiz programmes that enjoyed considerable popularity among the public.

For more than thirty years, she prepared and hosted the programme Dialógy s hudbou (Dialogues with Music) and the series Nestori slovenskej národnej hudby (Elders of Slovak National Music).

For her radio productions, she received numerous awards in the internal competition Rozhlasová žatva (Radio Harvest) and also achieved success at the national Czechoslovak Radio Harvest competition. For the programme Čas života a čas hudby (The Time of Life and the Time of Music), she was awarded second prize at the international radio competition Prix musical de Radio Brno.

In addition to her work in radio broadcasting, she regularly wrote reviews and scholarly articles for the journal Hudobný život (Musical Life).