Ahmed Alabaca is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, conductor, and facilitator. Over the past 20 years, Ahmed has worked with all kinds of artistic communities from scoring plays in New York’s fringe theater scene to working with young Black and Latine music students on the north, south and west sides of Chicago — composing and arranging music for professional and community orchestras throughout the U.S. to building a cabaret theater in the middle of the desert for Burning Man. Some of the ensembles Ahmed has worked with are the Florida Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Janáček Philharmonic, Fort-Dodge Symphony, the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, Civic Orchestra Fellows, D-Composed string quartet, the Mizzou Wind Ensemble, the Odin Quartet, the Arlington Symphony, the Accord Symphony (DC Strings) and, most recently, the Fayetteville Symphony. Last year, Ahmed premiered their first string quartet, commissioned by the Grant Park Music Festival, during their summer festival. You can also catch Ahmed’s music on such radio programs and stations as APM/MPR’s Performance Today, The Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline, MPR, WFMT and WQXR. Some of Ahmed’s most notable pieces include Across the Calm Waters of Heaven for strings, piano and organ, Ascension for solo clarinet and strings, Ode To Liberty for full orchestra, CELEBRATION for solo French horn and wind ensemble, Upon Meeting Errollyn Wallen for solo violin and The Crown Suite for various solo instruments. As the music director of the South Loop Symphony Orchestra, Ahmed focuses on presenting new music, specifically music written by women and people of color. Ahmed believes in the transformative power of music, and if you do as well, please support your local music organizations, composers and performers.
Ahmed Alabaca
