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1953 – 1954
Conservatory in Bratislava (piano, teacher: Sylvia Macudzinská)
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1954 – 1959
studies of musicology at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava
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1959 – 1961
teacher of music-theoretical subjects at the Conservatory in Košice
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1962 – 1963
dramaturg of the opera of the Jozef Gregor Tajovský Theater in Banská Bystrica
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1963 – 1971
editor of the magazine Slovenská hudba
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1968 – 1990
Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
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1969 – 1982
executive editor of the magazine Musicologica Slovaca
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1971
secret entry into the Society of Jesus, in 1984 priestly ordination
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since 1991
assistant professor at the Theological Institute of St. Alojz SJ in Slovakia, University of Trnava
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1992 – 1993
editor of the religious broadcast of Slovak Television
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1996 – 2001
Liturgy external lecturer, department of church music at the Church Conservatory in Bratislava
Assoc. Prof. Igor Vajda, PhD. was a Slovak musicologist, music journalist, editor, dramaturge, secondary school and university teacher, and priest. Born in Banská Bystrica, he studied piano at the Conservatory in Bratislava in the class of Sylvia Macudzińska, and later pursued Musicology at Comenius University. After completing his studies, he worked at the Conservatory in Košice as a teacher of music theory subjects. In the 1962/1963 season, he worked as a dramaturge for the opera at the Jozef Gregor Tajovský Theatre in Banská Bystrica. From 1963 to 1971, he was an editor of the journal Slovenská hudba (Slovak Music), and later joined the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he became editor of the journal Musicologica Slovaca.
Vajda wrote many important opera reviews of productions at the State Theatres in Košice, Banská Bystrica, and Bratislava. He published in journals such as Hudobný život (Musical Life), Hudební rozhledy (Musical Horizons), Slovenská hudba (Slovak Music), as well as theatre bulletins. From 1971, he was a secret member of the Society of Jesus order. On November 22, 1984, he was secretly ordained as a priest. He continued publishing numerous scholarly articles focused primarily on opera, especially on the works of Eugen Suchoň.
He was the author of a monograph dedicated to Sergej Prokofiev and co-author of the important work Národný umelec Eugen Suchoň (National Artist Eugen Suchoň, 2nd edition with Jozef Kresánek). His work Slovenská opera (Slovak Opera) was the first to map and critically assess the development of this genre in Slovakia.
After the revolution, he left the Slovak Academy of Sciences and worked as an editor, briefly serving as the head of emerging religious television broadcasting. He taught liturgical recitation and singing at Aloisiana, the St. Aloysius SJ Theological Institute in Slovakia at Trnava University. From 1996 to 2001, he worked at the Church Conservatory in Bratislava as an external lecturer of liturgics in the church music department.