Alexandra Ivanova

Three years after the release of her debut album, “BEAUTY IN CHAOS,” pianist and com­pos­er Alexan­dra Ivano­va is open­ing new doors as a pio­neer of dif­fer­ent soundscapes.

With her trio, she has toured Europe and North Africa, play­ing in cities such as Berlin, Vien­na, and Cairo. She received fre­net­ic applause as a show­case at the world’s largest jazz fair, Jaz­za­head in Bre­men. Imme­di­ate­ly after­ward, she gave a ben­e­fit con­cert in Berlin for the SOS Children’s Vil­lage in Moabit.

Alexan­dra Ivano­va goes where she opens doors, whether it’s a big jazz fair or a small festival.

As “Artist in Res­i­dence” for three months, she opened 2024 in Havana/Cuba with a per­for­mance at the Havana Jazz Plaza Fes­ti­val and played at the PENG Fes­ti­val, among others.

In 2025, she took part in an inter­cul­tur­al “Soundweav­ings” res­i­den­cy at the Banff Cen­tre in Cana­da, where Alexan­dra Ivano­va per­formed on both the piano and the Ara­bic qanun. As always, new dis­cov­er­ies were made in the col­lab­o­ra­tion based on pieces of con­tem­po­rary game­lan, whose com­posers are inspired by odd rhythms as well as Afro-Cuban music, and in some cas­es, also by maqam.

Alexan­dra Ivano­va then trav­eled to Indone­sia as a music ambas­sador for a month-long research and net­work­ing stay and began col­lab­o­rat­ing with con­tem­po­rary Bali­nese composers.

An Asia-Ocea­nia tour is now planned for 2026 as part of an inter­re­gion­al cul­tur­al col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Aus­tri­an embassies in Jakar­ta, Shang­hai, and Canberra.

In many ways, her album “BEAUTY IN CHAOS” is a snap­shot of a ver­sa­tile and well-trav­eled com­pos­er and pianist, Alexan­dra Ivano­va. It doc­u­ments her deci­sion to fol­low her per­son­al call­ing to be a musi­cian. It is also a kind of sanc­tu­ary, offer­ing an oasis of belong­ing for peo­ple from all kinds of places.

In her com­po­si­tions, Alexan­dra Ivano­va com­bines sounds from Maqam tra­di­tions, Afro-Cuban claves, Bul­gar­i­an rhythms, and influ­ences from both clas­si­cal music and jazz. The title track fea­tures the unique voice of the Syr­i­an-French vocal­ist, Lynn Adib.

The pieces on “Beau­ty in Chaos” invite the lis­ten­er to leave the Euro­pean canon and look at the world from dif­fer­ent points of view. They search for east­ern­ness in a West­ern con­text. “Enta Omri”, for exam­ple, is a con­tem­po­rary trib­ute to the leg­endary singer of Ara­bic clas­si­cal music, Umm Kulthum. “Ay Isigin­da” by Azer­bai­jani com­pos­er, Gam­bar Huseyn­li, is a piece that Ivano­va ini­tial­ly heard at a con­cert by the Azer­bai­jan State Orches­tra of Folk Instru­ments. The Ice­landic tra­di­tion­al “Krum­mav­i­sur” fea­tures strik­ing par­al­lels to the music of the Mid­dle East.

With musi­cians like bass play­er  Niklas Lukassen and drum­mer Nathan Ott—both of whom she met in Berlin—she forms a top-class piano trio with sen­si­tiv­i­ty and authen­tic­i­ty. Her well-craft­ed album has opened up a new path for Alexan­dra Ivanova—she has cre­at­ed a home for her­self in her music while also reflect­ing the wealth of her life experiences.