Ahmed Alabaca (they/them) is an African American composer, conductor, songwriter, pianist, and community facilitator. Creating power and possibility, through music, for themselves and the diverse communities they are a part of is the basis of Ahmed’s work. Raised in San Bernardino, CA, Ahmed understands the value of hard work and perseverance in the face of systemic and interpersonal challenges. Ahmed’s vision is “a new renaissance” for underrepresented composers, which centers the works of people of color, and creates opportunities to perform, record, and archive their work.
Ahmed received their B.A. in Music from Hunter College in New York, and attended advanced classes in film scoring at Juilliard and UCLA extension. While in New York, Ahmed began their professional career as a composer. Scoring 3 plays and 2 musicals. Here is where Ahmed met their creative partner Lily Raabe. Lily directed every show Ahmed composed music for. Lily was a perfect collaborator because she shared the same views of how art can be the conduit of change in overlooked communities. Ahmed, Lily and Brandon Estrella created and produced an Art Festival in Hilo, Hawaii. The Live Aloha Art Festival (named by Waiakea high school students) combined Theatre, Music and Film. As a collective, they worked together with local organizations and schools to provide a festival for the people by the people. They did not want to come in and be “experts” – They spent years building honest, genuine relationships with their partners because besides Brandon, Lily and Ahmed are not from Hawaii, therefore they did not feel comfortable coming into a community with a history of outsiders coming in telling them the ‘right” way to do something. The ultimate goal was to turn the festival over to the different organizations that had their partners over the years. Unfortunately, the festival ended when the pandemic shut everything down. But for Hilo’s last festival, the community ran meetings, artistic development, and planning.
Over the years, Ahmed has been an advocate for compassionate, honest, and genuine community engagement. Currently serving as music director of South Loop Symphony, a community orchestra in Chicago, Ahmed’s passion for honest community engagement and the importance of true transparency, They have been able to connect with Chicago’s increasingly diverse communities by programming music by Black composers, Women composers while still honoring the great composers of our past. Instead of picking music for the sole reason of ‘there needs to be more music performed by Black composers” ( which is true), They understand that if they don’t include the musicians in what the group should be playing, they will, in turn, become the very thing they despise about other organizations that tote the idea that they’re “doing the work”. By being transparent with the audience, Ahmed empowers them to give their feedback, sometimes helpful, sometimes not, but They understand that if the orchestra is going to provide the service of entertainment, there has to be a conversation and understanding between the two groups.
Over the past 20 years, Ahmed has had the pleasure of working with all kinds of communities from being a peer educator for 4 years while in high school-to now, working with young Black and Latino music students on the south and west sides of Chicago. Composing and arranging music for professional and community orchestras all over the US, and providing affordable music lessons to those who are passionate about learning more about music. They will continue to promote the importance of genuine, compassionate, and honest community engagement through conversation, action and their music.