Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin (Moscow, 1968), Austrian composer and pianist of Russo-Bulgarian descent. She studied composition with Bogusław Schaeffer and piano with Dimo Dimov, Boyan Vodenicharov and Alfons Kontarsky at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, State Music Academy in Sofia, and Ippolitov-Ivanov Music College in Moscow. In 2007, her violin concerto Mahogany was premièred by David Bowlin at Carnegie Hall. Her composition Annäherung, comissioned by the Government of Salzburg and premièred by the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg under Johannes Kalitzke, was a part of the exhibition Viva!Mozart, celebrating Mozart’s 250th birthday in Salzburg and subsequently at the Sejong Centre Fine Art Museum in Seoul. Her music has been performed by Katinka Kleijn, Artem Nyzhnyk, David Fulmer, Oswald Sallaberger, ICE/New York, Radiosymphony Orchestra Vienna, Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Zaporozhje, œnm, Da Capo Chamber Players, die Reihe, Wiener Collage, and has been featured in concert series and festivals including Chamber Series (CSO Chicago), ‘Vienna! City of Dreams’ (Carnegie Hall & ACFNY), Washington Square Music Society, Aspekte Salzburg, Sound Ways/St. Petersburg, Klangspuren, Kiev-Fest, as well as in Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, New York’s Merkin Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Villa Massimo, Grosser Saal Mozarteum, Chicago Art Institute, Nordic House in Torshavn, Flagey in Brussels, Sibelius Academy, Palácio da Justiça in Manaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck Hall in Cologne, and Shenkman’s Richkraft Theatre in Toronto.

Karastoyanova-Hermentin has has commissions from the WDR, ORF, Siemens Foundation, and ICE/New York. She won the Outstanding Artist Award in Music in 2013 (Federal Ministry for the Arts and Culture), Aaron Copland Fellowship for the MacDowell Colony (USA), Austrian State Scholarships in 2001, 2006, and 2010, The Prize of the City of Vienna, Wiener Symphoniker Scholarship, Theodor-Körner Award, and the Annual Scholarship ofSalzburg.

Lintarys for piano (2012). Comissioned by the 5th International Rosario Marcian Piano Competition (compulsory piece).