Dr. Viktor Simek
was born on October 28, 1941, in Žirany into a family of teachers, where he absorbed a love of folk traditions from an early age and witnessed a wide range of activities in his native village. He found joy in nature and its beauty, and therefore his later studies focused on natural history, land work, and art education, which he completed at the Faculty of Education in Nitra. At the Department of Art Education, his teachers were academic painter Doc. Ľ. Jelenák, Doc. P. Horvát, Doc. Z. Dvořáková, Doc. O. Felixová, academic painter I. Červeň, and others. He devoted his entire life to imparting knowledge and shaping the younger generation in school classrooms by instilling a love and warm relationship with folk traditions.
He taught in the villages of Salka, Gbelce, and Veľký Kýr in the district of Nové Zámky, and from 1971 in Jelenec. From 1989, he was deputy director until his retirement in 2003.
The author's artistic activity is known on two levels. He studied at the Institute of Education in Bratislava and obtained a conductor's license, and as a choirmaster of several choirs, he achieved remarkable results in various competitions and shows of a national and international nature. For seven years, he was an assistant professor at the Department of Music Education of the Faculty of Education in Nitra, where he taught conducting and led a choir.
In the years 1963 - 1971 he led the Children's Choir in Veľký Kýr. In 1971 he was at the birth of the Folklore Group in Žirany and founded the Mixed Choir of Csemadok, with which, in addition to awards at home and abroad, he was placed in the gold band several times, and in 1981 with the jury's praise. He led it for 14 years. In 1971 he founded the Children's Choir of the Elementary School in Jelenec, which he led for 32 years. For seven years he was the conductor of the choir Hlas Zobora in Kolíňany. For two years he devoted himself to the Women's Choir in Jelenec. In 1991 he founded the women's choir ZOBORALJA in Žirany, and he has been its choirmaster for over 30 years. In 2003 he founded the Women's Choir in Štitáre. He was its artistic director until 2018.
He is also engaged in composing. He created and edited compositions for children's and women's choirs, arranges sacred compositions. In 2012 the Regional Educational Center in Nitra published his collection of compositions Pieseň chramu (Temple Song). In 2023, his collection "Zborové skladby pre ženský zbor" (Choral compositions for women's choir) was published.
He is the author of the books Farby Podzoboria (2007) and Ľudový odev Podzoboria
(2013, 2014). Based on the motifs of the folk costume under Zobor, he created Coloring Pages for children (2014, 2016, 2018, 2024), illustrated a collection of poems and three leaflets (2015, 2017, 2020, 2023). He collaborated on the print of Detské hry Podzoboria, was a co-author of the script for the television documentary Fašiangy pod Zoborom. Reproductions of his paintings adorn two desk calendars (2001, 2026).
