Musicatlas
Music
Selected Works
Piano works
- For solo Piano (December 1999)
- A Short Variation on a Theme on Theodore Antoniou, Commissioned by Alea III (2008)
- Impromptu, for solo Piano (Summer 2008)
Other Instrumental
- Folk Dances, for solo Accordion (June 1993)
- Sonatina, for solo Flute (September 1996)
- Moments, for solo Percussion (November 2001)
- For solo Harp (November 2001)
- For solo Double Bass (January 2002)
- Solo Guitar (March 2002)
- Short Fantasy, for solo Oboe (March 2002)
- Fantasy, for solo Flute (March 2003)
- In Memoriam Bledi Llangozi, for solo Cello, Commissioned by Alea III (November 2004)
- Sequenza, for solo Trombone (2009)
Electronic and Tape Music
- Echoes, for Clarinet and Tape, Commissioned by the Greek Clarinetist Yannis Samprovalakis (October 2005)
Chamber Works
- Fluxus, for Flute, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Percussion, Violin, Viola, and Cello (April 2001)
- For Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano (April 2001)
- Lament, for Horn and Piano (February 2002)
- Moments, for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Percussion, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass (February 2002)
- Sextet, for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Cello (Summer 2002)
- Trio, for Clarinet, Percussion, and Piano (February 2003)
- Phos I, for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano (February 2005)
- Phos II, for String Quartet (April 2006)
- Collage a Pink Floyd, for Chamber Ensemble (Summer 2006)
- For, Robert Casadesus, for Flute, Viola, and Harp (2007)
Vocal Works
- Two Songs, for Soprano and Piano (March 2003)
- Seven Songs, based on Greek Poems (October 2008)
Stage Works
- Saupade, for Violin, Viola, Cello and Soprano and Actor (June 2005)
Orchestral Works
- For Large Orchestra (Summer 1999)
- Fantasy, for Orchestra (Second version), (February 2004)
- In Memoriam Witold Lutoslawsky, for Orchestra (February 2004)
- Anoiksi, for Symphonic Band, Commissioned by Thomas Stone High School Band (March 2005)
Opera/Theatre
- ION, Opera in seven scenes, Libretto by Nick Olcott (Fall 2007)
Life
- D.M.A., University of Maryland, College Park, 2008
- M.M., Boston University, 2003
- B.M., State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Greece, 2001
- Further studies at Fontainebleau’s American Conservatory in France, 2005
- Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia, 2003
Composition study with Lukas Foss, Theodore Antoniou, Lawrence Moss, Vladimir Tarnopolski, Allain Gaussin, André Bon, and Leontios Hadjileontiadis.
Altin Volaj has been recognized as one of the most gifted and thought-provoking composers of his generation. He has won various prizes, fellowships, and scholarships, including Nadia Boulanger Prix in Composition, Walsum Composition Competition Prize Winner (2005), Fontainebleau Fellowship, Robert Casadesus Fellowship, and ASCAP Awards, 2005–2009, to mention a few. Altin’s work as a composer has given him the international exposure. He has participated in workshops, music festivals, and seminars throughout Europe, and America. His music has been conducted and performed internationally by well-known conductors such as Theodore Antoniou, and performed by music ensembles such as the Greek Ensemble of New Music, the Alea III New Music Ensemble, the Left Bank Quartet, the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and the Maryland Opera Studio. Other performances include readings by the Kronos Quartet, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars Ensemble. Altin’s recent opera ION, was performed in February 2008 by the Maryland Opera Studio, in collaboration with librettist Nick Olcott, directed by Leon Major. Altin’s recent activities include an ongoing presentation of his opera ION at the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, DC, (March 2009). Commissions include Alea III, the Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf, Maryland, and clarinetist Yannis Samprovalakis. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, the Society of Composers, the American Composers Forum, and ASCAP.
Altin Volaj has previously held full-time position at Northern Conservatory of Greece (Thessaloniki, Greece), and teaching assistant positions at Boston University, and University of Maryland, College Park. He is currently teaching at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Although, Altin works in an essentially Western Contemporary music language, the sensibility, the philosophy, and the language of his homeland are never far away. His music is rooted in the sounds of Southeastern Europe: not just in the sound of traditional Balkan music, but the whole range of Eastern European sounds as well. These are the sounds of ancient rituals; of traditional Balkan folk music; and lastly of a Nature which is peculiar to that region. The synthesis of these contrasts — East and West, traditional and experimental, simple and complex, local and global — gives him an enormous possibility to develop a complex palette of his own musical sounds.