Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin is among the contemporary composers of world renown

Recently, the Austrian city of Salzburg awarded its highest honor in the field of arts and culture to the composer of Bulgarian descent Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin. ‎

The Großer Kunstpreis des Landes Salzburg is the second state award that Alexandra Karastoyanova has won in Austria. So far, she is the only woman to be honored with the award in the field of music, which is presented once every four years.

"This is a grand award which is given for overall creativity and contribution to cultural life", the composer says in an interview for Radio Bulgaria. "The prize is awarded to a person who was either born in Salzburg or who lived and worked in the city. In my case, the creative side may prevail, because in 2002 I moved to Vienna. Since then, many of my works have been performed and I have been very busy on the Salzburg music scene."

How does the audience in the city of classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart perceive contemporary music, to which Alexandra Karastoyanova also contributes? "With packed halls and enthusiastic reactions from the people attending," is the short answer. It also happens at the awards ceremony, where the composer chooses to present lighter material – "slow, lyrical, with many Bulgarian moments".

"Mari Mamo" is a trio for flute, violin and percussion, in which I delve into some Bulgarian musical layers", says Alexandra Karastoyanova describing the performed work. "At the end there is an improvisation with my voice and "Mari Mamo" are the only words used in the work. I received a lot of feedback from the audience - people who were not professionally involved in music came and were moved."

With the genes of a third-generation musician, Alexandra began playing the piano at the age of six at the school of the Moscow Conservatory. This was followed by a music college in the Russian capital, a move to Sofia with the necessary training at the National Music School "Lyubomir Pipkov" and the National Music Academy in the class of two prominent pianists - Professors Dimo Dimov and Boyan Vodenicharov, and the composer Georgi Kostov.

At the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Alexandra Karastoyanova had the honor of studying piano with Alfons Kontarsky and composition with Bogusław Schaeffer. It was in the Austrian city that she made her first serious piano performances and professional attempts at composing.

"I wrote my very first composition when I was 6 years old - at that time I constantly listened to the signal from the banned radio "Voice of America," recalls Alexandra Karastoyanova and sings the beginning of the Variations in C major by Mozart. "I had written variations on this theme, but I don't know where they are now. Of course, with the help of my parents, because at that age you can't write them down on a sheet of music."

Salzburg is the place where many of her works are performed - eleven of them for the first time. In 2000, the premiere of the piano concerto performed by the Mozarteum Orchestra with soloist Per Rundberg and conducted by Johannes Kalitzke took place at the "StArt Festival". The composer also appeared as a pianist, performing one of Mozart's concertos. On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the brilliant composer, born in Salzburg, Alexandra Karastoyanova received a commission for the orchestral work Annäherung, the recording of which - again under the baton of Johannes Kalitzke - was played during the annual exhibition Viva! Mozart, opened by President Heinz Fischer and visited by 219 thousand people.

Alexandra Karastoyanova writes mainly orchestral music, works for chamber ensembles and soloists. And she gives an example with two of her works - the Violin Concerto Mahagony, performed for the first time in 2007 at Carnegie Hall by the American violinist David Bowlin under the baton of Stefan Linev; the work for chamber orchestra "Contact", which combines "jazz allusions, even a little touching on Vivaldi, coded things from an aria from Don Giovanni" and ends with a quote from Mahler's Fourth Symphony.

The composer says that in her work she deals with changing states - tension with calmness, incorporates architectural and dramaturgical thoughts and creates prerequisites for the musicians to express their strengths. She puts the emotional charge of the works in first place, and second comes the virtuosity with which the instrumentalists can shine, interpreting an audible, in her words, contemporary work.

"When I came to Boguslaw Schaeffer, who is one of the great experimenters of the 20th century, he turned my visions upside down," says Alexandra Karastoyanova. "Then a rethinking began not only of the intuitive aspect - one of the most important for me, but also of the rational aspect and the balance between them. There is a third aspect in my compositions - a kind of controllable intuition that does not lend itself to rational explanation. Unlike an experimenter like Schaeffer who has thousands of possibilities, I choose a single one to prove that every note is in its place."

According to the composer, it is also important not only to look to the future, but also to establish continuity with the past. However, is there a hint of Bulgaria in her music?

"The moment when Bulgarian material is taken and incorporated has always bothered me," replies Alexandra Karastoyanova. "More than that, for many years it repelled me, but gradually I began to approach folklore in a very subtle and refined way, because one must be careful when working with a different style. This is where the great danger lies - that it could become intrusive or provocative. That is why I did not want to go into this direction, perhaps until 2009, when I wrote "Mari Mamo". In my works I have very small fragments related to Bulgarian folk music, sometimes even 20 seconds out of 20 minutes."

If we use the metaphor of the prophet and his homeland, the "voice" of Alexandra Karastoyanova, unfortunately, is heard very rarely in Bulgaria. She explains it by the fact that she lives in another country, and defines herself as an "inactive person".‎

"It is very important for society to start thinking about composers and that in order to achieve success, they need to travel a very long way", she says. "That is why we need mechanisms for encouragement, regardless of where we are. We may be a drop in society, but we should not forget that what we do is a huge ocean. And if we talk about cultural policy, about what the non-existent profession of а composer actually represents, it is good to also ask ourselves what we value - our own or not, and what is our own at all"

So far, the following engagements are present in Alexandra Karastoyanova's schedule for 2025: a trio for an Israeli ensemble and a work for a chamber orchestra in Estonia, performances at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Hopefully, the musician will add at least one concert in her homeland to them.

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