Area of Study
D.M.A. Candidate Piano Performance CUNY Graduate Center
PDPL Composition Mannes School of Music | The New School
M.M. Piano Performance and Composition Mannes School of Music | The New School
B.M. Piano Performance Mannes School of Music | The New School
Lora Al-Ahmad is a pianist and composer from Sofia, Bulgaria. She graduated with honors from Mannes College in New York City, earning degrees in Piano Performance, under the guidance of Pavlina Dokovska and Vladimir Valjarevic, and Composition, studying with Lowell Liebermann.
Lora has performed at prestigious venues, including annual appearances at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, The Bohemian National Hall, The DiMenna Center, and The German House at the United Nations Plaza, as well as concert stages across Europe and the United States. Her festival engagements include The Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau in France, the Festetics Palace Festival in Hungary, the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, the Gingold Festival in Miami, and the Mannes Sounds Festival in New York. She is dedicated to promoting works by women composers, regularly featuring their music in her curated recitals.
As the winner of the 2020 Newly Published Music Competition by the National Flute Association in the United States, Lora’s compositions have earned international recognition and have been performed by acclaimed musicians, including Stefan Ragnar Hoskuldsson, principal flutist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Maron Khoury, flutist at the Metropolitan Opera; Billy Hunter, principal trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera; and Wolfram Koessel, cellist of the American String Quartet. Her piece “Consolation in Loving Memory of Allan Evans” was selected for the ABRSM’s piano repertoire collection at the post-graduate diploma level.
Currently pursuing Doctoral Studies in Piano Performance at the CUNY Graduate Center, Lora remains an advocate for contemporary music, serving as an executive board member of the Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York and as a resident composer at the Off the Beaten Path Chamber Music Festival in Bulgaria. Her compositions are published by the Theodore Presser Company.
Lora has maintained a steady teaching career for over a decade, teaching privately and serving on the faculty of Bard College Preparatory Division for three years.