Education

D.M.A. University of Maryland, College Park (2008)
M.Mus. Boston University (2003)
B.Mus. 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, and Lawrence Moss.

Bio

Dr. Volaj 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.

Dr. Volaj’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. Dr. Volaj’s recent opera ION, was performed in February 2008 by the Maryland Opera Studio, in collaboration with librettist Nick Olcott, directed by Leon Major. Dr. Volaj is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, the Society of Composers, the American Composers Forum, and ASCAP.

Dr. 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.

Although, Dr. Volaj 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.  

Altin Volaj (five music excerpts)

A Short Variation on a theme on Th. Antoniou, for solo Piano
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
Margarita Glebov, Piano, March 2008

Echoes, for Clarinet and tape
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
Evan Solomon, Clarinet, May 2006

Phos II (String Quartet)
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
Left Bank Quartet, September 2006                                       

Collage à Pink Floyd (Chamber Ensemble)
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
Bang on a Can All-Stars, October 2006

ION (Opera in one act, scene 4)
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD
University of Maryland Opera Program, College Park, MD
Leon Major, Director and Nick Olcott, Librettist, February 2008