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1987 – 1992
Studies at the Institute of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague (musicology and aesthetics)
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1992 – 1998
Doctoral studies at the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences; study stays in Basel, Bayreuth, and Vienna
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1995 – 1998
External lecturer at the University of Bayreuth (seminars on the history of Czech, Slovak, and Russian opera)
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1996 – 2007
Dramaturge of the Opera of the Slovak National Theatre
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1998 – 1999
External lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava (lectures on the history of musical aesthetics)
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1998 – 2001
Researcher at the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (from 2000 as deputy director)
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from 2002
Lecturer at the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava (history of opera, history of 19th- and 20th-century music, music aesthetics); 2005 Associate Professor; 2007 – ? Head of the Department
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2008
Literary Fund Award for dramaturgical work
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2019 – 2023
Vice-dean for research and doctoral studies, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, from 2023 Vice-dean for admissions and public relations
Vladimír Zvara is a Slovak musicologist, dramaturge, and university lecturer. He studied musicology and aesthetics in Prague and completed his doctoral studies at the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He undertook several study stays abroad (Basel, Bayreuth, Vienna) and lectured as an external instructor at the University of Bayreuth on the history of Czech, Slovak, and Russian opera. His research focuses on musical theatre and Slovak opera.
He is the author of two monographs: Ján Cikker: Vzkriesenie. Genéza, osudy a interpretácia operného diela (Ján Cikker: Resurrection. Genesis, Fate and Interpretation of an Opera, 2000) and Opera na rozhraní. Pohľady na vývoj hudobného divadla v období moderny (Opera on the Threshold: Perspectives on the Development of Musical Theatre in the Modernist Period, 2004). He has also contributed entries to numerous dictionaries and encyclopedias, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Pipers Enzyklopädie des Musiktheaters, Knaurs Großer Opernführer, Lexikon der Oper (Komponisten – Werke – Interpreten – Sachbegriffe), 100 slovenských skladateľov (100 Slovak Composers), as well as articles for journals, radio broadcasts, and bulletins of the Slovak National Theatre.
As a dramaturge, he has collaborated on numerous opera productions and initiated several distinctive projects at the Slovak National Theatre, such as the staging of Martin Burlas’s opera Kóma (Coma). He worked with director Peter Konwitschny on Janáček’s operas Z mrtvého domu (From the House of the Dead, Zürich and Vienna, 2011), Jenůfa (Její pastorkyňa, Graz, 2014), and Věc Makropulos (The Makropulos Affair, Bratislava, 2016).
Since 2002, he has been teaching at the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, where he lectures on the history of opera, 19th- and 20th-century music, and music aesthetics. From 2019 to 2023, he served as Vice-Dean for Research and Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of Arts, and since May 2023 he has held the position of Vice-Dean for Admissions and Public Relations.