Biography

At the heart of Oleksandr Alikhanoff’s artistic world lies melancholy – the fine line between beauty and sorrow, between inner calm and emotional tension. His particular affinity for music in minor keys shapes his interpretations, in which lyrical restraint meets dramatic expressiveness. For the pianist, minor is more than a key: it is a language capable of expressing deeply hidden human emotions.

Oleksandr Alikhanoff was born in 2001 in Kherson, Ukraine. He began playing the piano at the age of five. He received his first music lessons at Children’s Music School No. 3 in Kherson in the class of Iryna Viktorivna Leleko.

While still at school, the young pianist took part in numerous music competitions in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Kherson and won prizes on several occasions. His competition successes include awards at “Pervotsvit-Debut” and “VIVAT, MUSICA!”. In 2016 he won the Grand Prix in the piano category at the 3rd All-Ukrainian Festival-Competition “Yakshcho kokhayesh…” in Dnipro. He gave his first solo recital on the occasion of his graduation from music school.

He continued his musical education at the College of Musical Arts in Kherson, where he studied with Olena Semenivna Burbas and graduated in 2021. During this time he broadened his repertoire and gained his first experience as a soloist with a chamber orchestra.

The wish to become a concert pianist had been with him since early childhood. His particular devotion to melancholic and dramatic music, however, only developed as he matured as an artist.

The move to Germany in 2022 marked a profound turning point in his life. The forced change in his circumstances and the challenges of a new beginning led to a long break in his active musical work. Yet his bond with the piano remained, even though the opportunities for regular practice were limited at first. These years also gave him room for personal and artistic reorientation. With his return to active music-making, a new chapter began for him as a concert pianist.

In 2025 Alikhanoff founded the ensemble Luxarion, which brought together piano, voice, violins, viola, guitar and percussion. As founder and musical director, he devised concert programmes, wrote his own arrangements and prepared each member of the ensemble individually. He paid particular attention to the interplay of the instruments, the development of a unified sound and the interpretive shaping of the works. Luxarion later continued as a duo for piano and voice, in which Alikhanoff plays the piano part and is responsible for the musical arrangements.

In June 2025 Alikhanoff took part in two different projects at the 17th Junges Theater Lünen Festival at the Heinz-Hilpert-Theater. On 25 June he performed with his ensemble Luxarion as part of the “Mixed Slam”, where one of his own compositions received its German premiere. Two days later he accompanied the music-theatre piece “Die Vogelscheuche” (The Scarecrow) by the children’s and youth theatre group Mrija at the piano.

On 27 September 2025 Alikhanoff appeared with the singer Mariia Alikhanova as Duo Luxarion at BonnFest in Bonn. The performance was part of an event dedicated to the Ukrainian city of Kherson, Bonn’s partner city. The very next day, 28 September, the duo performed at the 4th Ukraine Day in Cologne, a festival of Ukrainian culture and art held next to the Chocolate Museum.

In January 2026 Alikhanoff shaped the music of the children’s and youth musical “Der Kristallbaum” (The Crystal Tree) at St. Michael’s Church in Dortmund-Lanstrop. For the production he compiled a repertoire of classical works, prepared the young performers musically and led rehearsals. He also accompanied the performance at the piano.

On 29 March 2026, at St. Michael’s Church in Dortmund-Lanstrop, Alikhanoff presented his piano recital “Zwischen Feuer und Nacht” (Between Fire and Night), dedicated to the piano music of Frédéric Chopin. In June of the same year he performed at the Vielfalt Fest in Lünen. On 1 November another solo piano recital followed at the Martin Luther Church in Lünen.

His repertoire spans several centuries of piano literature – from Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninoff to works of the 20th century and contemporary compositions. Across the boundaries of individual eras and styles, he is especially drawn to works that give musical expression to the many layers of human feeling.

Alongside his concert work, Alikhanoff is devoted to music education. He teaches piano in and around Dortmund and is also working on his own compositions.

At the centre of his artistic identity is sincerity of musical expression. For him, playing the piano is far more than a display of virtuosity. It offers a way to make audible the feelings that so often remain hidden in everyday life. People can hide their true emotions behind words, a smile or silence – but music can reveal what they would never dare to say. In this the pianist sees the true power of music: its ability to tell the truth without a single word.

Music becomes a space in which tragedy gains beauty and silence finds its own voice.