Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin
SHLIKERMAN
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin´s
orchestra work 
RYCHENBERG COMPETITION
2018-2020
In June 2018 the Musikkollegium Winterthur launched an international composition contest in collaboration with the Fotomuseum Winterthur. A total of 191 composers from over 30 countries applied for the competition. The jury, chaired by the Swiss composer Alfred Zimmerlin, nominated 10 works.The Rychenberg Competition will award prizes worth a total of CHF 100,000.
© Stefanie Luger
T A R S I S für Orchester
Musikkollegium Winterthur
Dir. Pierre-Alain Monot
RYCHENBERG COMPETITION
„DIE MUSIK SELBST IST KONKRET GENUG.“ – ALEXANDRA KARASTOYANOVA-HERMENTIN IM MICA-INTERVIEW
Das ganze Interview ist hier zu lesen.
My "POLYNJ" on the ScoreFollower
youtube-channel
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outstanding artist award – Musik: 2013 Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin receives for her work 
the Austrian State Prize "Outstanding Artist Award - Musik 2013" of the
Austrian Federal Chancellery, as a reward of her excellent compositions work, given to one musician nationwide and awarded by the Federal Minister Dr. Claudia Schmied.
"Mit “Elimo“ hat Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin Musik geschaffen, für die zutrifft, was die Dichterin Ingeborg Bachmann für die Poesie eingefordert hat: "Scharf von Erkenntnis und bitter von Sehnsucht"
- (Gerhard Gensch, Donau Universität Krems)
CD Bird as Prophet New Focus Recordings 2019, New York
for violin and cello for violin, flute and percussion
David Bowlin & Katinka Klejn, Ayano Kataoka, Conor Nelson
Works by Mario Davidovsky, Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin, Martin Bresnick, George Walker, Du Yun
New Focus Recordings 2019, New York
"...The refined and enigmatic music of Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin
figures heavily in Bird as Prophet, comprising almost half of the record’s
entire length and adding an important dimension to Bowlin’s explorations of
tradition versus the new and uncharted..."
-Daniel Schreiner, 11.27.19, I Care If You Listen
-Mike Telin, 12.13.19, Cleveland Classical
Kastena (2003) features a drone in the cello part, played by Katinka Kleijn, but this is an activated drone. Bending slightly in pitch, sliding into sul ponticello, and even coming to a temporary halt with pizzicati, the cello does not simply resound underneath the violin’s decorative melody, but instead echoes its expressive contour, not unlike the fixed electronics in Davidovsky’s Synchronisms. The cello drone finally breaks under the building pressure and rises to interact with the violin in a breathless, virtuosic, and highly syncopated duet, contrasting greatly with the piece’s mysterious sotto voce ending.
-Daniel Schreiner, 11.27.19, I Care If You Listen
Bowlin has previously interpreted the music of Alexandra Karasyoanova-Hermentin, a Moscow-born composer/pianist of Russo-Bulgarian background currently living in Austria; he premiered her violin concerto Mahagoni, which she had written for him, in 2007. Here she contributes two pieces for small chamber ensembles. Kastena (2003) for violin and cello, the latter played by ICE’s Katinka Kleijn, is a tension-filled work that floats an energetic violin part over a cello performance that alternates between drones and abrupt, percussive interventions.
-Daniel Barbiero, 10.10.19, Avant Music News
Karastoyanova-Hermentin’s Mari Mamo (2009) roughly translates to “Hey, Mother” in Bulgarian, and is “used as a heightened way to greet a woman, or a mother in particular,” in the composer’s words. Joined by flutist Conor Nelson and percussionist Ayano Kataoka, the nearly 17-minute work reads like a through-composed epic, its main melody passing between instruments in a variety of contexts and sound environments. The piece’s first half propels itself forward, rising steadily towards a plateau of highly charged marimba outbursts; a sudden caesura then initiates a long, balancing release of energy across the piece’s second half, beginning with a quiet ethereal section of breathless flute whistling, glockenspiel tinkling, and high violin pizzicati. As Bird as Prophet’s possibly most ambitious statement, Mari Mamo carries a poignant reverence for the Bulgarian singing tradition, yet squarely within Karastoyanova-Hermentin’s unique musical world.
-Daniel Schreiner, 11.27.19, I Care If You Listen
A founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Bowlin is joined by ICE cellist Katinka Kleijn in Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin’s Kastena for violin and cello (2003). The haunting work begins with a cello drone over which Bowlin plays a dramatic cadenza that is full of heart-wrenching imagery. The ensemble between players is astonishing, especially in the extended unison passages that move apart ever so slightly and then reunite.
-Mike Telin, 12.13.19, Cleveland Classical
Mari Mamo (2009), a trio work for violin, flute (Conor Nelson) and percussion (Ayano Kataoka), constructs melodies out of discontinuous tone colors and plays fruitfully on the contrast between staccato flute and tuned percussion on the one side, and long, floating violin tones on the other.
-Daniel Barbiero, 10.10.19, Avant Music News
comissioned by ASPEKTE SALZBURG
ASPEKTE FESTIVAL, SOLITÄR Mozarteum / first performance VERSCHOBEN auf 6. März 2021
ensemble PHACE, Lars Mlekusch (cond), 28. März 2020
OSTERFESTIVAL TIROL /abgesagt Corona-Maßnamen
ensemble PHACE, Nacho de Paz (Dir), 7. April 2020
IMAGO DEI, KREMS /verschoben auf 2.April 2021
ensemble PHACE, Nacho de Paz (cond.)
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René Staar Voices o f Diversity
The composer Alexandra Karastoyanova‐Hermentin wants to get to the core of the musical statement. Her concern is the essence of the musical figure, what lies behind the notes, the statement, the innermost part of the music. Intuitively she wants to dis‐ cover what animates the work and which she describes herself with the word “core.” In her quest to combine logic and intuition, she meticulously applies theoretical founda‐ tions and compositional work. Every melodic turn, every harmonic connection seeks to wrest the aura of the unheard. A deep rootedness in Eastern European traditions and the sphere of Byzantine mysticism gives her work additional impulses. This manifests itself in her predilection for heterophony, melismas, and traditional church modes— characteristics which are frequently audible in her music. ..."“When I try out something on the piano, I deal with ideas of a linguistic nature and abstract myself from their sound realization, because sound is not the primary source for me. It is difficult to explain how one’s own language develops—on the one hand, it’s an intui‐ tive attempt on my part to create something absolutely ‘individual’ on the level of mi‐ crostructures, to fathom the logic that lies within oneself. I am looking for a logic that Voices o f Diversity 114 cannot be justified rationally—that would be the so‐called third factor—an inner‐ musical logic on a purely intuitive basis, so to speak, which prevails over me.” There can be no better summary of Alexandra Karastoyanova‐Hermentin’s aspirations as a composer."
the whole essay - Ensemble Wiener Collage
«PHACE | Le Marteau sans maître: Ensemble»
13. June 2017
World premiere of "LETREI" for ensemble
commissioned by Wiener Konzerthaus and ensemble PHACE
Simeon Pironkoff - conductor
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Festival
ULTRASCHALL Berlin |
17.01.2020 | HEIMATHAFEN NEUKÖLN
Peter Sigl (Vc) & Nora Skuta (Klavier)
So steht in diesem Konzert klassisch besetzte Kammermusik wie Polynj von Aleksandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin für Violoncello und Klavier neben den Etüden in der ungewöhnlichen Kombination Harfe, Kontrabass und Schlagzeug von Sofia Gubaidulina, das Werk der Komponistin aus dem Jahr 1965, das am Beginn ihres eigenen musikalischen Weges der Vertiefung und Verinnerlichung steht.
Werke von: Manuela Kerer, Olga Neuwirth, Clara Iannotta, Aleksandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin, Margareta Ferek-Petric, Vasilikí Krimitzá, Sofia Gubaidulina, Elena Mendoza
MusicaFemina – Poesie der Komponistinnen
im Auftrag von maezenatentum.at
"KASSIA Voca me" für Streichtrio
&
100 Komponistinnen aller Genres Zeiten und Länder wurden von der Dichterin Sophie Reyer in Porträt-Vignetten verwandelt. Reyer, Dichterin und Komponistin, widmete, im Rahmen einer persönlichen Korrespondenz ihren „Vorgängerinnen“ je ein Gedicht zu widmen. Diese Gedichte sind nun die Basis für eine weitere Vertonung, initiiert von Irene Suchy und getragen von unseren Förderern und Förderinnen von BKA, BMKÖS, Nationalfonds, Dwight und Ursula Mamlok Stiftung, GFÖM und ORF-Oe1
Stiftung Mozarteum|1. Dezember 2018 | Großer Saal Mozarteum,
Festival "DIALOGE"Salzburg
for violin & violoncello
ensemble oenm Salzburg
Peter Sigl (vc), Per Rundberg (pno)
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Festival "SOUND WAYS" | 22. November 2018 | St. Petersburg
World premiere of "l ö r r" for ensemble (2018)
commissioned by the festival "Sound ways"
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"ANNÄHERUNG" für Orchester
Auftrag der Salzburger Landesregierung
UA. MOZARTEUM ORCHESTER SALZBURG
Dir. Johannes KALITZKE
Acht renommierte Komponistinnen und Komponisten mit Salzburg-Bezug haben diese Suite als Auftragswerk für die große Ausstellung „Viva! MOZART“ sponsored by Reber gemeinsam geschaffen. Die Uraufführung wird Die acht Komponisten der Viva! MOZART-Suite (v.l.n.r.) Alexander Müllenbach, auf Tonträger (in Kooperation mit der Firma Sony mit dem Label „Oehms Ludwig Nussbichler, Wolfgang Danzmayr, Stefan David Hummel, Klemens Vereno; Classic“) aufgezeichnet und als akustischer Beitrag der ganzjährigen
Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin, Anders Koppel und Andreas Aigmüller Ausstellung „Viva!MOZART“ in der Neuen Residenz für jeden Besucher zu hören sein.
| "Scarlatti Aria" for piano
performed by Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin
© by Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin 2021