Alexandra Balandina

    Balandina Alexandra: Curriculum Vitae
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Professor of Ethnomusicology at Ionian University, Greece. I hold an MA and a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BA in Social Anthropology from Panteion University, Athens. I was Course Director and Lecturer on the MA in Ethnomusicology at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland (2006–2008).

My teaching, research, performance, and writing are informed by the music cultures of Iran, Greece, the Balkans, and Central Asia, with a particular focus on Uzbekistan. My research interests include ethnographic research, sensory and embodied research; performance as both a research method and an object of ethnomusicological inquiry; cultural organology; improvisation; Cold War radio; music and Islam and audiovisual ethnomusicology.

Performance has been central to both my academic work and my approach to ethnographic research. My engagement with modal musical traditions began in the mid-1990s as a student of Ross Daly, with whom I subsequently performed as a member of the Labyrinth ensemble in Greece, Cyprus, and the U.K. I later studied tombak and daf in Iran and have performed in a range of intercultural ensembles. From 2018 to 2025, I was a member of the Intercultural Orchestra of the Greek National Opera, directed by Harris Lambrakis.

I am the author of the open-access book Ethnographic Research in Ethnomusicology (Kallipos Academic Publications, 2025), currently under translation in English, Turkish and Georgian.

Director of the short ethnographic film Sounds of Water (2026), exploring the relationships between water, memory, landscape, everyday life, and environmental change in the mountain villages of Taygetos, Greece. https://vimeo.com/1220020579?fl=ip&fe=ec

Currently developing the music documentary film Doyra: The Heartbeat of Uzbekistan, using the doyra (frame drum) as a lens through which to explore and depict the rich musical culture of Uzbekistan. https://youtu.be/UqGClOELcKA

Born in Central Asia, raised in the Balkans, educated in Greece and the U.K., and currently teaching at Ionian University on the island of Corfu, Greece, I speak Greek, Russian, English, Serbo-Croatian, Slavic Macedonian, and Farsi (Modern Persian).