Roman Berger
From Unearthing The Music
Roman Berger (born August 9, 1930 in Cieszyn) is a [[|Slovak]] composer, music educator and scientist.
Berger, who came from a Lutheran pastor family, studied piano and music theory at the Katowice Music Academy. From 1948 he continued his education at the University of Music Arts Bratislava (VŠMU), where he attended the piano classes of Frico Kafenda and Štefan Németh-Šamorínsky, and then began to teach. After he was denied a degree with Bolesław Woytowicz in Katowice, he became a composition student of Dezider Kardoš.
He graduated with honors with the 'Transformations' cycle in 1965. This was performed at the Prague Spring in 1967, and he declined to perform at the Warsaw Fall in 1968 after the Warsaw Pact troops entered Czechoslovakia.
From the late 1970s onward, Berger's works were also performed internationally. He also wrote numerous articles on music theory and philosophy, music analysis and interpretation. Among other things, he was awarded the Herder Prize by the University of Vienna (1988), the Gloria Artis Medal for Cultural Merit (2006), the Order Polonia Restituta , Officer (2011), the Prize of the Polish Composers' Association (2012) and the diploma of the Pontifical Council for Culture (2013).
Related Content
Experimental Studio Bratislava: An interview with Juraj Ďuriš
Organized Sound and Experiments in Slovak Music
The East of the West: The context for electroacoustic music in Czechoslovakia, 1948–1992