Aizhana Nurkenova

Aizhana Nurkenova is an award-winning composer and concert pianist whose work spans film, television and the concert stage. 

A Kazakh-born British musician, Aizhana established an international career as a concert pianist before moving into screen composition, where her recent work has earned significant recognition. Aizhana studied with the Trio di Trieste in Italy before completing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music in London under the guidance of Hamish Milne. While at the Academy, she was awarded the Hodgson Piano Fellowship and won the Harriet Cohen Bach Prize from the Musicians’ Company.

As a concert pianist, Aizhana has performed internationally, including solo recitals in the UK, Italy and Kazakhstan, and chamber recitals at the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Juilliard School in New York. She was a piano soloist with the Kazakh State Philharmonia from 2009 to 2016. Her collaborations with Ksenija Sidorova and Alexander Sitkovetsky have included performances at the Cheltenham and Lichfield festivals and on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. Aizhana’s 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.

Aizhana’s current focus is composition for screen, following completion of a Master’s degree in Composing for Film and Television at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) as a PRS Foundation Scholar. In 2026, the documentary I Want to Live won a Student Academy Award, while Corps à Cœur (Body to Heart) was named a finalist at the same awards. 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.

In her screen music, Aizhana combines classical craftsmanship and orchestral scoring with a modern musical language that includes synth textures and unconventional sounds. She takes a collaborative, story-led approach, working closely with directors and creative teams to find a distinctive musical voice for each project. Praised by International Piano magazine for performances described as “exhilarating” and “singing to heaven”, Aizhana brings the same depth and expressive range to her screen compositions.