VVO 2024: Organ, maľba a meditácie - Daniel Pastirčák a Ján V. Michalko

On Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m., two artists will present themselves in the Evangelical Church on Lazovna Street, who will create an extraordinary atmosphere over the philosophical-literary legacy of Goethe's Faust by combining the sound of the organ, visual arts and meditation. Preacher, writer, artist and versatile artist Daniel Pastirčák, together with the icon and legend of organ art in Slovakia, prof. Ján Vladimír Michalek, will be the special guests of this exclusive and content-rich festival evening.

Organ, painting and meditation at Lazovna
Daniel Pastirčák currently works as a preacher of the Church of the Brethren in Bratislava. He is also a successful poet, novelist and essayist whose literary works have won several important awards. In addition to literature, he also works for the theater and visual arts. He participated in book illustration festivals and exhibitions and exhibited in Slovakia and abroad. At the end of the 90s, he had solo exhibitions in London and Prague. He is also coming to Banská Bystrica, at the international organ festival Vivat vox organi, to present his artistic work. For the Faustian cycle of the current edition of the festival, he prepared a painting with a Faustian theme, which will be exhibited during the event and will also be part of Daniel's meditations. In addition to his artistic work, he will also share his spirituality with the participants of the event in the form of six meditations, which were inspired by the Faustian cycle of the festival and his reflection on the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.


Professor Ján Vladimír Michalko is an icon of organ art in Slovakia. He is a leading teacher of organ playing and was also a long-term dean of the Faculty of Music and Dance of VŠMU. He presented himself at all the most important domestic organ festivals, art shows, and organ cycles. In addition to domestic stages, he also gave concerts in important European music centers, as well as in Great Britain and the USA. Professor Michalko contributed to the preservation and promotion of rare historical organs in Slovakia, he also organized the annual international music festival Slovak Historical Organs. In cooperation with the Diskant publishing house, he documented on ten CDs the sound of historical organs of the most important organists working in Slovakia, among them the sound of the organ in Španá Dolina. For the first time, he is also coming to the festival in Banská Bystrica to present his inimitable and unique improvisation skills.