August 2023
NEW CD: Alexandra Ivanova
15/08/23 16:38 Filed in: new release
Alexandra Ivanova's music is full of influences that are as diverse as the world we live in. In fact, the Austrian pianist with Bulgarian roots has already lived in Jordan, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and France, and has immersed herself in a wide variety of cultures. “I was a Scott Joplin fan and played my first ragtime pieces when I was 10,” the pianist recalled. "I remember how the ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ attracted me magnetically. ‘Cherokee’ was the first jazz standard I played. I founded my first trio at the local music school. I really immersed myself in the music of Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal." Despite studying Social Sciences at the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Studies, Ivanova was simultaneously drawn back to the piano. “Back then, I was interested in both Harold López-Nussa and Avishai Cohen,” the pianist recounted. “I also played my own compositions with my trio during my Master's studies.” Globetrotter years followed the two parallel studies. "But the world does not revolve around Europe," Ivanova said, "and that's why I learned Arabic at that time and moved to Lebanon. After that, I lived in Jordan and in the Gulf. Those five years in the Middle East brought me closer to Muslim, Arab, Indian and Pakistani cultures, where the topic of Western privileges comes up in conversation. I got to know Tarek Yamani in Dubai, of whom I had been a big fan for a long time and who became my mentor. I put my career aside to have time to compose. After an artist residency in Iceland, I moved to Berlin during the pandemic.”
And that' was the beginning of the album BEAUTY IN CHAOS (Double Moon Records: DMCHR71426).
And that' was the beginning of the album BEAUTY IN CHAOS (Double Moon Records: DMCHR71426).
