Aleksandra Nagorna is a Ukrainian-American composer, music producer, and violinist based in Des Moines, Iowa.

She holds a Bachelor of Music from Iowa State University where she studied violin under Borivoj Martinić-Jerčić and composition under Dr. Chistopher Hopkins. While at university, Aleksandra worked as a music engraver, librarian for the symphonic and chamber orchestras, and the executive of the video game development student organization.

In 2023, she completed a Master of Fine Arts in Music for Motion Pictures and Contemporary Media from the Film Scoring Academy of Europe in Sofia, Bulgaria where she studied composition and orchestration under Conrad Pope, Dr. Norman Ludwin, Mikolai Stroinksi, Francisco Rios, and Jonathan Shanes.

Her thesis focused on writing music for dramatic non-musical theatre, an approach she applied soon after when composing a 70-minute orchestral-americana-dubstep soundtrack for the George Daily Auditorium’s stage production of The Hobbit. Most recently, she composed an original string quintet soundtrack for a feature-length film adaptation of Susan Glaspell’s short story/one-act play: A Jury of Her Peers.

Her music draws from a wide range of influences blending classical orchestral traditions, Ukrainian folk music, film scoring, americana, and electronica. She’s inspired by composers like John Powell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Vivaldi, and Dvořák, as well as artists like Skrillex, Kesha, and Neil Cicierega.

Along with her creative work, Aleksandra is an Adjunct Professor of Music at William Penn University, a beginning strings instructor with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra Academy, sound technician for the Playhouse Theatre, and performing bard at local Renaissance Faires.