“Alda Dizdari is a phenomenon […] She is, as the greatest musicians are, a perfect servant of the music: she interposes no mannerisms or intellectualisms, allowing the musical work to speak for itself in every phrase.”
“Such vivid, imaginative, brilliant playing is rare indeed [...]. The expressiveness of her bowing was a thing of wonder.”
“… a moving story, told with refreshing openness and honesty, that captures and conveys the transformative power of music under even the most trying of circumstances.”
“[...] a remarkable talent”
Alda Dizdari is an outstanding musician of immense diversity. Since her triumphant debut at the Wigmore Hall she has appeared on all the major concert venues in the UK and has been a regular guest on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 programmes.
In 2015 she embarked on a tour promoting Elgar’s Violin Concerto in Eastern Europe including giving the premiere in her native country Albania. She recorded her journey in a book: “Kiss Me Agin; A Memoir of Elgar in Unusual Places”, which was launched in 2018, and received high acclaim. In September 2019 she recorded the concerto in Moscow with Musica Viva Orchestra and conductor Alexander Walker, which will be released as an SACD and Vinyl. This recording will be also featured in the audio book version coming out in 2020.
In 2013 and 2014 she performed the complete works for the violin and piano by Beethoven and Brahms with pianist Tom Blach. She has released three highly acclaimed CDs, one of which recorded live from her debut at the Wigmore Hall.
Selected by the Gramophone Magazine in May 2011 as “One to Watch” musician, she made a Solo Violin Tour in the UK in July 2011 titled “In the Footsteps of BACH”, promoting her studio CD with the same programme.
Internationally Alda rose to fame in 2008 after performing Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Albanian Radio -Television Symphony Orchestra making their UK debut in Canterbury Cathedral in the presence of the Albanian Deputy Prime Minister. In 2006 she received her first nomination for “The Best Classical Musician of the Year” in her native Albania.
In addition, as a devoted chamber musician she played as guest leader of Allegri String Quartet performing in all the major music festivals in the country, leader of the Ensemble de la Chapelle St Mark, Luxembourg, as well as the founder of Chromatico Contemporary Ensemble and Competition. She has toured Europe with Ensemble Modern and Pierre Boulez.
Now a British citizen, Alda was born into a family of musicians and left her native Albania at an early age to pursue her career in music. She studied in Romania and received a Bachelor Degree from the University of Bucharest. She did her Masters at the University of Illinois in USA and continued her Advanced Studies in London, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno where she also held the prestigious Leverhulme String Fellowship for two years.
In 2008 she was appointed Musician in Residence of The Wapping Arts Trust with HRH Princess Michael of Kent as Patron.
Alongside her successful solo career Alda is a passionate teacher, currently teaching in two of the leading music schools in the country, the Purcell School and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is also the founder of DEA Music Academy, a community project in the borough of Southwark in London that helps children, some from disadvantage backgrounds and with learning difficulties, achieve higher goals by offering ‘A Conservatoire Tradition with a Community Feeling’
Alda plays a GB Ceruti Violin, Cremona 1791 bought specially for her by a private sponsor and a Dominique Peccatte Bow on loan from the Stradivari Trust, UK.