Interview in mica – music austria (in German): STRUKTURIERT-EXPERIMENTELLE IMPROVISATIONEN – ALEKSANDRA BAJDE UND ISABELLA FORCINITI IM PORTRÄT

• March 25-26, 2023 | One of the speakers for the Sci_Art – Art+Science+Technology Symposium – at SAW Gallery in Ottawa (CA)
• March 24, 2023 | A Room for harp, harpsichord, recorder, flute, 4 lamps, and electronics will be performed by airborne extended at SKC Korotan in Vienna (AT)
• March 26, 2023 | A Room for harp, harpsichord, recorder, flute, 4 lamps, and electronics will be premiered by airborne extended in the framework of the festival Slovenian Music Days at Knight’s Hall, Križanke in Ljubljana (SI)
• April 21, 2023 | Performance with Isabella Forciniti in the framework of Sonica Festival at Cukrarna in Ljubljana (SI)
• May 3, 2023 | Webinar in the framework of the Knowledge transfer center east’s cooperation project From STEM to STEAM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-Mathematics)
• July 5, 2023 | New work for Vertixe Sonora Ensemble will be premiered in the framework of the series Do Audible 23 at Sala de exposicións da Sede da Xunta de Galicia en Campolongo in Pontevedra (ES)

Aleksandra Bajde is a Slovenian composer-performer, cultural manager, lecturer, and researcher living in Vienna. In her native country, she studied the violin, the piano, and classical singing at the Maribor Music and Ballet Conservatory. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in jazz singing from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Social Sciences in a Bachelor’s (Honours) degree program in the liberal arts and sciences from Amsterdam University College. During her undergraduate studies, she was selected for an Erasmus Program at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. She completed a trilingual master’s in Advanced European and International Studies at the European Institute in France and a master’s degree in composition with distinction at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, where she studied under the guidance of  Carola Bauckholt and Christoph Cech. Here she also pursued a Master’s degree in Jazz Singing under Elfi Aichinger. She is currently pursuing a PhD in political science at the University of Vienna. Her research interests include EU cultural diplomacy and EU cultural policy.

Her music has been performed in several European countries, including Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, as well as in prominent venues and festivals, i.e. Alte Schmiede, Porgy & Bess, Wien Modern, Brucknerhaus Linz, Leicht über Linz, Crossroads Festival in Austria; November Music, Operadagen Rotterdam in the Netherlands; Cologne Opera in Germany; Ljubljana New Music Forum, Slovenian Philharmonic, Cankarjev dom in Slovenia and many more.

She has been a recipient of several scholarships from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Austria, including a ”Startstipendium” for Music and Performing Arts (2019) and a State Scholarship for Composition (2022). In 2020, she was awarded the Theodor Körner Förderpreis for composition and was selected for the European Music Council Fellowship Programme 2020 – 2022. In 2021, she was selected for the Global Cultural Relations Programme 2021, and in 2022, for the Break Fellowship Programme for EU Women Entrepreneurs. Her work is supported by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport, City of Vienna, and SKE.

Her recent work can be characterized as a hybrid of composed and improvised music that includes elements of performance art. Her main interest lies in exploring and experimenting with the endless possibilities of sound and its expression, while also forging new links with other art forms and genres. She continuously expands her sound palette through incorporation of unconventional singing and playing techniques, different sound objects, and electronic sounds. She aims to create exciting, impulsive music, whereby her main focus lies on creating different, high-contrast music scenes and situations. As she works with an expanded palette of both sonic and visual components her artistic approach is inherently interdisciplinary.

She is Founding Director of the Culture and Sustainability Lab. Currently, she also works as the Office and Project Manager at the Austrian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music and holds a position as a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. From September 2014 to September 2018, she served as the Project Manager and Secretary at the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras. Previously, she acquired professional experience in diplomacy at the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Slovenia in France and at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Vienna.

“As we find ourselves amidst fully-fledged ‘glocal’ issues, such as the rapidly changing world of politics, the ongoing refugee and immigration crisis, climate change, etc., we have reached the point at which the need for effective cultural, socio-political, and environmental models and solutions is at its highest. As a cultural practitioner and a social sciences postgraduate, I more than ever feel a duty to contribute to the improvement of those issues by using the potential of social science research, creativity, and my professional experience to work on and be involved in projects that will produce effective solutions and shape sustainable and collective futures”.

In 2020, she was selected for the European Music Council Fellowship Programme 2020-2022 and in 2021, she was selected for the Global Cultural Relations Programme 2021. During the European Music Council Fellowship Programme 2020-2022, she developed a workshop for artists – Creating New Synergies Between Artistic Fields, EU Cultural Policy, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals – under the mentorship of Victoria Liedbergius (EMC President). She is particularly interested in exploring potentials of culture and creative approaches and developing interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, and cross-cultural collaboration projects that foster innovation and sustainability.

From tradition of Ipavec family into the world – a series of conversations with Slovenian composers of the younger generation – with the guest Aleksandra Bajde and the moderator prof. Gregor Deleja

On cultural diplomacy and contemporary music. Talk with Darja Korenčan Korez on the Radio-Television Slovenia 1 (in Slovenian) Profil: Aleksandra Bajde

Večer (in Slovenian): Aleksandra Bajde: Dunaj in Avstrija cenita umetnost

Donne 365 (in English): Meet the ComposHER: Aleksandra Bajde

mica – music austria (in German): „[Meine] Musik ist eng mit meiner Persönlichkeit verknüpft“