Thomas Nassi

Born: 2 March 1892, Dardha (Albania)
Died: 21 December 1964, Orleans (USA)

(this composer submitted by Frank T. Manheim <Telemanncapecod.net>)

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Music

• Hymni Flamurit (The Flag Hymn), arrangement of Albanian National Anthem (Kristo Floqit/Ciprian Porumbescu/Nassi), publ. 1918; 2nd printing Thomas Nassi, Orleans MA 1947
• Prapa Ardhi (Love Song) Floqit/Nassi
• Malesore (To the Mountain Girl) tenor & male trio) Floqit/Nassi
• Fyelli i Bariut (Shepard’s Flute) (Flute & piano)
• Katra Valle (A suite of Albanian folk dances)

(representative works)

Biography

Thomas Nassi had a many-faceted career as a music leader and educator. He may be considered the father of introduction of Western music to Albania, which was liberated from Turkish rule in 1912, and struggled against Italian domination after WW I (1920). Nassi emigrated to the United States in 1914, and graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1918, also serving part-time in the Boston Symphony as a flutist. In an astounding 4-year period before 1920 he also founded the first Albanian-American band, and founded and led several Albanian Orthodox church choirs in Boston and other Massachusetts towns. In 1920 he took the "Vatra" band to Albania, supporting the independence struggle and later bringing music to all parts of the country. After his return from Albania in 1926 he moved to Cape Cod (Massachusetts). Here he and his family provided most of the school music education in the Upper Cape. He founded many performance organizations, including the forerunner to the present Cape Cod Symphony. He enjoys near-hero status with both the Albanian American community and in present-day Albania, but has up to now been little known outside the Albanian ethnic community and Cape Cod.

[Brief summary of article by Frank T. Manheim in the forthcoming Oxford University Press, American Biography encyclopedic publication]

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