Lora Al-Ahmad

Piano

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Bard Conservatory of Music: Preparatory Division

Biography:

Lora Al-Ahmad is a pianist and a composer from Sofia, Bulgaria.

She graduated from Mannes College with honors and holds a BM degree in Piano Performance, a Double Major Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Composition, and a Professional Studies Diploma degree in Composition. 

She studied piano with Pavlina Dokovska and Vladimir Valjarevic and composition with Lowell Liebermann.

In May 2019, the last concert of the series “Musical Treasures from Bulgaria”, was dedicated to Lora as a composer and pianist. The performance took place at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.

In May 2020, her “Two Skazkas”, published by Theodore Presser Company, won the First Prize in the Solo Flute category of the 2020 Newly Published Music Competition by the National Flute Association in the United States.

Festival appearances include The Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau in France, Festetics Palace, Keszthely Zala in Hungary, The Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, USA, and The Mannes Sounds Festival in New York, USA.

As a committed soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Al-Ahmad has performed in prestigious venues in New York such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, The Bohemian National Hall at the Czech Center, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, The DiMenna Center, The German House at the United Nations Plaza and others.

Her music has been performed by internationally distinguished musicians such as Stefan Ragnar Hoskuldsson, the principal flute player of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Billy Hunter, the principal trumpet player of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Wolfram Koessel, the cellist of the American String Quartet and many others.

Lora is an active advocate for new music, often exclusively focusing on works by women composers.

In November 2021, Lora was the Guest Composer and Lecturer at SIUE (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), where the premiere of her Piano Trio “Irminden” took place. The commissioned work will be featured in a new CD release (2022), titled “A Century of Bulgarian Piano Trios”, with performance by Miroslav Hristov,violin, Marta Simitdchieva, cello, and Ilia Radoslavov, piano.

Ms. Al-Ahmad is based in New York City, actively performing, composing and teaching piano.

For more information, please visit www.loraal-ahmad.com
Department: Arts