Meet Czech and Slovak artists, professionals, students, and scholars who have accepted our challenge to introduce the subject of their project, research, or studies in a presentation limited to six minutes. In English. Moderated by Christopher Harwood, Ph.D., Columbia University.
Presenters of the twelfth edition of the 6-Minute Challenge
Martina Barta (jazz singer), Michal Benes (Covid video game), Martina Forman (author), Petra Gelbart (music therapy), Vlado Kolenic (musician/chef), Leos Malec (financial analyst), Em Solarova (nonbinary linguistics), Barbora Zeigler (photography), and Kamila Zmrzla (visual artist).
Light refreshment will follow the presentations.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $5. RSVP through Eventbrite is required. Proof of vaccination is required; wearing a face mask is strongly recommended for indoor events.
PRESENTERS
MARTINA BARTA is a multitalented singer and musician born in Prague, based in Berlin, performing in diverse music projects at national and international music festivals and venues worldwide. Starting her music education at the age of 4, she took flute, violin and piano lessons during her elementary school years, studied French horn at the Music HS Gymnázium Jana Nerudy, and later vocals at the Prague Conservatory. In 2016, she received her Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the Jazz Institute at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, after her final concert with Martina Barta & Her Jazz Orchestra. In 2017, Martina represented the Czech Republic at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. She also regularly performs with her older sister, Kristina Barta, a successful Czech jazz pianist and composer. Martina is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music where she takes classes in the Jazz Arts Masters Program with Professor Theo Bleckmann.
MICHAL BENES (born in Litomerice, grew up in Prague, Czech Republic) is a quantitative analyst in the secretive world of New York hedge funds. He received degrees in mathematics at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany and Charles University Prague, Czech Republic, where he finished his Ph.D. in 2005. During his studies, he enthusiastically participated in mathematics and programming competitions. He is a silver medalist from International Mathematics Olympiad, three times finalist of the International Mathematics Competition for University Students, and two times finalist of the ACM Programming Contest. After his studies, he spent five years developing T.V. over the Internet in a Prague-based start-up. He moved to New York City in 2010 to apply his skills to the financial markets. Recently, he became interested in the mathematical modeling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the communication of the results to the public.
PETRA GELBART, a native of the city Usti nad Labem, is an educator, board-certified music therapist, and very part-time author. She received her Ph.D. in musicology/ethnomusicology from Harvard University with a dissertation titled "Learning Music, Race, and Nation in the Czech Republic." Having gone on to a Master's in music psychotherapy, she specializes in developmental and rehabilitative interventions. However, she is currently also joining a private creative arts therapy practice as a mental health practitioner. She teaches college classes, e.g., "Music and the Mind" at Ramapo College or "Out of India" at Fordham, and is developing a science-music-math youth curriculum. Since 2004, for part of each year, she works with children with a history of institutional care in the Czech Republic. Petra has been a Roma rights activist and performer for some 25 years. She was the music section curator-in-chief of www.romarchive.eu. In 2010, as a visiting scholar at New York University, Petra co-founded the Initiative for Romani Music, which was most active during 2011-2017.
MARTINA FORMAN was born in Brno, Czech Republic. She holds a degree in screenwriting from Prague's renowned Film Academy (FAMU). Formanova moved to the United States in 1994 and has since written eight books in Czech, some of them became bestsellers, including Skladatelka voňavého prádla, 2002 (Folding Fresh Laundry), Snědla dětem sladkosti, 2012 (Piece of Cake) and Případ Pavlína, 2014 (Pavlina's Case). Her latest novel Nalakuj to na růžovo was published in 2021. Martina also wrote two screenplays for Czech television and countless articles and commentaries for Czech magazines and newspapers. She is the widow of the late director Milos Forman and lives between Connecticut and New York with her two sons. Martina also bravely and successfully shares her sense of humor as a stand-up comedian in clubs in New York.
VLADO KOLENIC, a prolific songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist, grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. At the age of six, he began to play classical piano and study composition. In the late '70s, his rock band TAKTICI topped the European music charts, surpassing groups like The Queen, The Bee Gees, and ABBA. In 1979, when the communist government canceled the band's England tour, Vlado forged his passport and defected to the United States. The band's music was banned from the radio. Vlado's musical resume includes #1 songs, music for motion pictures and children's T.V. shows, jingles, and many recording credits. Over a hundred of his songs were published worldwide. In 2015, Slovak Network T.V. made a documentary about the Taktici band, but some of Vlado's testimonies were censored. So, he decided to write his memoirs to tell it as it was. Sacrificing Fame for Freedom was published in 2020. A true renaissance man, Vlado is also an accomplished chef and co-owner of Bettola, a German/Italian restaurant on the Upper Westside in Manhattan.
LEOS MALEC, born in Brno, Czech Republic, studied Economics, Business, and German at Drew University, New Jersey, USA, where he received B.A. in May 2021. Prior to his university studies and his relocation to the U.S. in 2017, he attended a prestigious Anglo-American boarding school in Prague, Open Gate School. Leos graduated with International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBDP) in addition to the regular Czech High School. He achieved all this and much more thanks to the generous financial support from The Kellner Family Foundation and The Bakala Foundation. During his university years in the US, Leos gained significant practical and work experience, working and interning in various financial institutions and companies, including internships on Wall Street, NYSE, in NYC, NJ, PA. Currently, he is working as a financial analyst. Leos plans to get his Master’s degree in the near future.
EM SOLAROVA is a filmmaker and writer originally from Sázava (Benešov region). They graduated from Gymnázium Nad Alejí in Prague before moving to California to pursue fame and fortune. Having discovered Mexican food, they stayed for a decade. Currently the Program Manager at the Czech Center New York, Em comes from the world of film and commercial production and film festival operations. Plus, they used to be a projectionist! Their credits include Slamdance, American Film Market, Outfest, AFI Fest, TCM Classic Film Festival, and Mammoth Lakes Film Festival. On the commercial side, Em has worked with clients ranging from American Airlines and Buzzfeed to the YouTube star chihuahua Pancho. Em graduated from Chapman University with degrees in Creative Producing, Philosophy, and Creative Writing. Their short fiction and personal essays have been published in a number of outlets and read by Em at several conventions and art gatherings.
BARBORA PAZOURKOVA ZEIGLER lived in her native Hradec Kralove until she was 18 years old. After graduating from cosmetology high school, she left for a summer job in Milan, Italy, and stayed several years studying fashion styling and merchandise at Accademia del Lusso in Milan. Her interest in fashion photography started with fashion magazines and a fashionable mother. In 2012, Barbora came to NYC to study at the FIT's summer program and fell in love with the city, its people and energy. In 2014 she moved to NYC and became a self-taught photographer. She now runs her own production company, Fashion Love Connection, working as a photographer and producer with international brands, artists, and models. In 2020, she released her first short documentary about Gabriel Levicky, a Slovak artist and poet living in New York City.
KAMILA ZMRZLA is a Brooklyn-based artist born in Prostějov, Czech Republic. At the age of 17, she moved with her family to the USA. Formally, she studied studio art at Hunter College, but primarily she is self-taught through a lifetime of creative immersion. Her strongest influences are rooted in her upbringing in the former Czechoslovakia, where folklore, politics, traditional costume, and her grandfather's botanical paintings shaped her imagination from an early age. She favors vivid colors, undulating forms and repeating patterns. Her paintings were featured in Esquire, Time Out New York, Al Jazeera English, etc. Kamila participated in the Black Lives Matter art protest in Soho, NYC, where she painted seven large-scale murals on vacant storefronts invoking the need for equality and social justice. Her painted cow was displayed at Hudson Yards and auctioned to support the Gods Love We Deliver project providing meals for people too ill to shop or cook for themselves. In 2021, Kamila's works was selected for the Spring Break Art Show curated by Rene Riccardo.
This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, New York chapter (SVU/NY), in association with the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic, and with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).