Celebrations of the 70th Anniversary of the Technical University of Košice were ceremoniously ended with the famous Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, performed for a mixed choir, two pianos, solos, and percussion. Since the memorable concert tour in Mexico in 2007, it has been sung by Collegium Technicum for the 21st time. This time under the leadership of Mr. Marián Vach, with whom the choir has been cooperating since 1985. The Vienna Piano Duo Veronika Trisko and Johanna Groebner have played all the concerts of the choir in the so-called small cast and we are glad that they played in Košice once again. The soprano was sung by Michaela Várady, who is a soloist of the State Theater Opera of Košice, the baritone Filip Banžák from the Czech Republic, and the tenor Joaquin Asiauin from Germany, who sang this part more than 250 times. After fifteen years, it was his eighteenth Carmina Burana with the Collegium Technicum. Cassovia Percusion Ansamble was formed under the leadership of Mr. Miroslav Greman at the last Carmina Burana in Spišská Nová Ves in 2017.

Associate Professor, Ing. Michal Kostelný, CSc., who is the founder and current director of the Collegium Technicum (1983), has led the fortieth season continuously. During its existence, the choir has introduced 200 concerts and festival performances abroad and has performed in 18 European countries, South America, Israel, the USA, and Thailand. It also received the highest awards at international abroad competitions in England, Russia, Thailand, and the Czech Republic. The Collegium Technicum has performed 25 vocal-symphonic works with professional orchestras and has been conducted by 45 professional conductors, including 22 conductors outside of the Slovak or the Czech Republic.

From 2010 to the present, a conductor of the choir has been Mgr. Art et Mgr. Tatiana Švajková, PhD. from the University of Prešov in Prešov and the Conservatory of Jozef Adamovič in Košice. She has premiered and recorded with the choir significant works by Slovak authors, dominated by the 30th Anniversary Concert of the Collegium Technicum. Every year, she actively prepares a choir for cooperation with professional artists, what more, she has been cooperating with the Košice State Philharmonic for a long time. In total, with the choir, she has given more than 60 concerts and concert performances. The two-year pandemic did not discourage her from preparing the third restart of the Collegium Technicum with a successful concert directly streamed from TUKE Aula Maxima on October 5, 2021, followed by a study of Mozart's Requiem for the Košice State Philharmonic.

Both of them received the "TUKE Memorial Plaque Award" from the TUKE Rector for spreading the good name of the Technical University of Košice.

Photo: Jaro Ľaš