Dr Alexandra Huang-Kokina

About

I’m an academic and pianist working at the intersections of music, literature and new media cultures. I hold a PhD from the University of Edinburgh (2023), where I explored the dynamic relationship between piano playing and novel writing. My research is informed by my liberal arts education and practical experience as a music performer. My current interests include digitally-mediated opera, collaborative and AI-augmented creativity, and audience engagement in the performing arts. Past interests include the cultural and intellectual history of Western art music, and performance studies more broadly. I’m also the Creative Director of Operactive Arts, a UK-based social enterprise reimagining classical music for the modern world.

Academic Trajectory: Currently based in the U.K. and Sweden, I am a Bicentenary Fellow in Music at the University of Manchester, and an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Aesthetics and Business Creativity (ABC) at Lund University. I am also a visiting fellow at Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at UCL and a research associate at the Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture and Society (CDCS). In 2024-25, I held a Digital Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh. I was formerly a visiting research fellow at the University of London.

Music Journey: My musical life has been a vibrant fusion of artistic disciplines and digital experimentation, bridging cultural traditions with new media practices. My work in digital creativity breathes new life into my performance practice, exemplified by the ‘Creative Digital Dynamics‘ chamber concert series and my immersive opera project (‘OperAI‘). These initiatives aim to create playful, inclusive experience and steer opera and classical music towards today’s digital entertainment cultures. My first opera, Yūrei: Ghost of the AI Empire, premiered in Edinburgh in March 2025, with the Swedish première to follow in October 2025.

Arts management: Alongside my academic and musical career, I’m passionate about talent incubation and performance curation. This led me to co-found Operactive Arts (with Arturs Kokins) in 2024—an arts management company that reimagines both the artistic and business sides of classical music, while championing emerging musicians, creative technologists, and interdisciplinary artists through opportunities that let their talent shine.

My Book: My forthcoming academic book, The Musical Performativity of Twentieth-Century Piano Novels, is under contract with Palgrave Macmillan. This book delves into a global corpus of narrative fiction focused on piano performance in non-conventional settings. It argues that these piano stories transcend mere aesthetic subjects, serving instead as discursive vehicles for socio-political transgression that address class mobility, intercultural conflicts, and interracial politics.

My Education: My diverse cultural-linguistic journey began with my first degree at National Taiwan University, where I read English, Japanese, and French languages and literatures. I went on to complete my first master’s in modern literature at the University of Edinburgh, where I stayed for my PhD (2019-23). During the PhD, I also successfully auditioned for and pursued my second master’s degree in piano performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2020). In May 2023, I passed my PhD viva with only minor editorial corrections. I remain deeply grateful for the generous scholarships and sponsorships (totalling over £100,000) that supported my academic and artistic path.