MMag.a
Alexandra Helldorff
MA
Conductor, harpsichordist, and pianist Alexandra Helldorff combines artistic versatility with a strong foundation in historically informed performance. She is in high demand as a soloist, collaborative pianist and ensemble leader. She has worked at the Mozarteum University since 2014.
Alexandra Helldorff was born in 1986 in Yaroslavl, Russia, where she received her first piano lessons at the age of five at the local music school. In 1999 she moved to Austria with her family and later began her formal musical training at the Tiroler Landeskonservatorium in Innsbruck, studying conducting with Tito Ceccherini and piano with Bozidar Noev. At the same time, she commenced her studies at Mozarteum University Salzburg, where her teachers included Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Alexei Lubimov (piano), Karl Kamper (choral conducting), and Dennis Russell Davies (orchestral conducting).
She subsequently pursued postgraduate studies in historically informed performance practice with Reinhard Goebel and in conducting with Hans Graf. At the Anton Bruckner University in Linz she undertook further studies in harpsichord and is currently undertaking doctoral research under the guidance of Anne Marie Dragosits. Her thesis examines the realisation of figured bass and the role of the keyboard player as both interpreter and composer. She also received important artistic impulses from Margit Legler in the field of historical acting.
In recognition of her outstanding achievements during her studies, she was awarded the Bernhard Paumgartner Medal of the Mozarteum Foundation.
Alongside numerous appearances as a soloist and chamber musician, she has conducted the Mozarteum University Ensemble, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra, and her own ensemble SÆSCH. She has collaborated in concerts and radio productions with the Vienna Philharmonic, the WDR Orchestra and Choir, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra, and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie.
Alexandra Helldorff has worked at Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2014, where she initially held scholarly positions at the Department of Musicology and the university library. She currently works in the Department of Vocal Studies, and teaches the history of vocal repertoire at the Mozarteum Pre-College.