We recently connected with Alexey Logunov and have shared our conversation below.

Alexey , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Throughout my creative career, I’ve been wandering between different musical genres and styles, and also between the two paths of composer and pianist. As a teenager, I played actively in rock bands, and later I decided to pursue the classical route and entered the conservatory. But that rock background never really left me – it’s always been somewhere in the back of my mind, shaping my compositions and feeding my love for being on stage and bringing music to life. Because of this constant “in-betweenness,” I eventually realized that I’m especially drawn to embracing and combining musical elements that many people around me considered “incompatible.”

I feel incredibly fortunate to have met musician friends who share these artistic ideas – composer Jee Won Kim and violinist Christopher Herz. Together, we are creating a new experimental music festival, Overtuned Fest, which will launch in February 2026. We’re exploring ways to blur the boundaries between contemporary classical music and rock. For the opening concert, I’m writing a large-scale piece (a kind of symphonic cycle) for electric guitar, electric bass, drum set, and piano with electronics. The work is inspired by the monumental art of Anselm Kiefer, and aims to capture the overwhelming atmosphere and dense, layered textures of his mixed-media paintings.

Among other concerts, we’re planning a reimagining of Schubert’s “Winterreise”, as well as a large-ensemble program created in collaboration with emerging composers and visual artists – students and alumni of Indiana University Bloomington – designed to bring a truly multisensory experience to the audience.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a composer and pianist working in the field of contemporary classical music. I’ve been writing for about 15 years now – everything from solo pieces to chamber music, large ensembles, and full orchestra works. I’m originally from Saint Petersburg, Russia, and I came to the U.S. seven years ago. Right now, I’m finishing my doctoral degree in composition at Indiana University Bloomington. Besides composing, I also perform as a pianist, mostly focusing on 20th-century music and new pieces by living composers. And recently, I’ve started getting into free improvisation, although improvisation has actually influenced the way I write music for a long time.

A lot of my music grows out of how I experience the modern world. It often feels like we’re surrounded, almost submerged, in this endless stream of information: meanings, stories, influences, concepts. It all exploded with the rise of the internet and has been expanding ever since, way beyond what any of us can fully take in. I try to reflect that complexity and constant motion in my music through dense, cloud-like textures with free, floating melodic lines above them. I really enjoy that kind of intensity in music – when a lot is happening at once and you suddenly feel like you’re stepping into an entirely new sound world.

Over the years, I’ve listened to and learned from a wide mix of genres: late Romantic music, underrepresented early Russian avant-garde composers, free jazz, folk traditions, rock, and metal. All of that has shaped the direction I’m taking now, especially my interest in cross-genre projects and finding ways they can bring fresh energy into the classical music world. As an artist, I’m always trying to explore where tradition meets freedom and experimentation, and how that intersection can help us think more deeply about the contradictions in our lives. With all the division and hostility we’ve been seeing in recent years, I feel that music still has the power to cross boundaries and bring people together, no matter their background or aesthetic preferences.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future of the classical music field. It feels like we’ve reached a moment where challenges that have been building for decades have finally brought us to a kind of point of no return. In today’s world, it’s almost impossible for an emerging artist to “compete” with the entire archive of world art, all instantly accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. But I don’t see this as a pessimistic message. To me, it signals that people are hungry for change. I have a feeling that the next five years will determine what the field will look like for a long time, and that’s both scary and exciting. I like to think that the music I write and perform, and the projects I create or collaborate on, can make a real impact. But we’re still far from figuring out exactly what the future of music will become.

With the rapid development of AI and its influence on the internet as an archive of human knowledge, I think we may soon start breaking away from the connections that shaped previous generations. You can already see it: many people are trying to escape a computerized world filled with misinformation, and are seeking a renewed sense of belonging by returning to the simplicity of pre-digital times. That’s one reason why nostalgia-driven art – like vaporwave – has become so popular.

I believe one of the most important shifts we can make is moving from creating art for a global online audience to working actively within our local communities. That’s how classical music functioned for centuries, and that’s where I think real change can happen – right in the lives of the people around us. The challenge is that, even with all the richness of classical tradition, we as musicians have to adapt to modern realities. We need to create new meanings and reach audiences in places where they wouldn’t normally expect to encounter music. I imagine sound filling art galleries, museums, shopping malls, and the streets of small towns. Maybe that sounds a bit idealistic, but this idea is what motivates me most when I think about my next projects.

Overtuned Fest that I mentioned previously feels like the first serious step in that direction, and I really hope to take on more projects like this, bringing new and meaningful musical experiences to the people around me.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

One of my pieces for piano, live video, and electronics is called “Let’s Play Together?” The original idea came from the concept of a doppelgänger, but in the end the piece became more about making music in ensemble – even if the pianist is performing alongside their own virtual doubles projected on the screen. And the more I collaborate with talented artists and musicians around me, the more unexpected experiences I have. These collaborations constantly push my creativity forward.

This past year was incredibly busy. I wrote new pieces for the Orchestra of the Sofia Gubaidulina Center for Contemporary Music and for Unheard-of//Ensemble, attended several new music festivals and electronic music conferences, played keyboard in musicals, organized my first recital of my own works, and gave my first piano recital in the U.S. Through each of these events, I met new people, discovered their personalities, and connected through making music together.

My Midwest tour with the amazing guitarist and composer Jessica Ackerley was a particularly special experience. We performed in all kinds of non-classical venues – from underground clubs to churches – and that gave me a new kind of confidence that the music I write and perform can reach very diverse audiences. Returning to keyboard after many years of playing only acoustic piano brought back that rush of goosebumps I hadn’t felt since my teenage years playing on rock-club stages. And witnessing the dedication and passion of nearly thirty musicians preparing for my composition recital in March – it’s something beyond words.

Anne Zouning Liao, a talented emerging composer based in Chicago, wrote a piece for me in which I play piano and also perform with a winding toy horse – something I once saw in a dream that eventually inspired her composition. In June, pianist Yumi Suehiro gave an incredible performance of “Let’s Play Together?”. It was the first time I could experience the piece from the audience’s perspective. I absolutely loved her performance and the unstoppable energy she brought to it. Later, I found myself reflecting on how much individuality and uniqueness each musician contributes to the world.

In general, I’m always excited to go to rehearsals or concerts, to play with other musicians, or to talk with listeners afterward. My creative life is very far from the traditional image of a composer sitting alone in a studio writing music for some idealized ensembles. I learn from the people I make music with, and that collaborative process is the most rewarding part of my work. Every new interaction feels like the beginning of an open-ended story – you never know what it might lead to next.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alexeylogunov.ru
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexlogunoff/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexey.logunov/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/AlexeyLogunovMusic
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/alexeylogunov

Image Credits

Jeewon Kim, Alain Barker, Asiia Salakhova, Tim Schmoll, Michael Yu