Aizhana Nurkenova

Aizhana Nurkenova is an award-winning composer and pianist whose work spans film, television and the concert stage. Her recent screen work has received major international recognition. In 2026, I Want to Live was selected as a Student Academy Award winner in the Documentary category, while Corps à cœur (Body to Heart) was named a finalist at the same awards, held at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Other highlights include Ether, selected for La Cinef at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, and the audio drama The Great Goose Migration, which won Gold at the New York Festivals Radio Awards. 

 

Since moving into screen composition, Aizhana has developed a growing portfolio across fiction, documentary, animation and audio. She is particularly interested in finding a distinctive sonic perspective for each story – responding to its emotional landscape, visual language and dramatic rhythm, and using music not simply to illustrate emotion but as an integral part of the narrative. Her musical palette spans acoustic and orchestral writing, synthesis, electronic textures and unconventional sound, shaped by the creative needs of each project. 

 

Aizhana completed a Master’s degree in Composing for Film and Television at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) as a PRS Foundation Scholar. Her transition into screen composition followed an established international career as a concert pianist, bringing her experience of musical structure, orchestration and live performance into the collaborative world of filmmaking. 

 

She studied in Italy before completing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded the Hodgson Piano Fellowship and the Harriet Cohen Bach Prize. She has performed internationally, and her particular affinity with the music of J.S. Bach led her to perform and record the complete English Suites at Duke’s Hall in London. Alongside performing and composing, she has maintained a longstanding commitment to music education through teaching piano and music theory, as well as selected lectures and masterclasses. 

 

Praised by International Piano magazine for performances described as “exhilarating” and “singing to heaven”, Aizhana combines the discipline and depth of her classical training with a performer’s sensitivity to phrasing, timing and expression. In her screen work, this gives her both precision and expressive freedom, and the versatility to approach each new project on its own terms.