MEET THE COMPOSER
The award-winning Albanian composer is a professor at the University of York. His Concerto for Orchestra won first prize at the Lutwosławsi Competition in 2013 and Solo, his new album for the NMC label, will be released on 29 September. It features the latest recording in his ‘Soliloquy’ cycle, which he began in 1998.
There was always music in me when I was little. My uncle played clarinet and he alerted my parents, saying they should send me to a professional music school. It was more than ten miles away and every single day for four years I would get up at 5am and get the bus. Italian radio also played an important part in my musical nourishment; I heard, for the first time, names like I Solisti Veneti and Eugene Ormandy.
After my graduation I was sent to a remote little town in the south of Albania. I spent three years there. There wasn’t much in terms of classical music, but I took refuge in the amazing folk music and worked with some fantastic virtuosos – clarinettists especially – and singers. I liked the ancient quality of this music and the resonances of that soundworld have subconciously become part of my music.
The ‘Soliloquy’ pieces are challenging. The idea is to push the bar as far as possible, within reason, to understand what else can be done with these instruments. The piec
