Composer Kozma Lara, “Honored Artist”, belongs to the generation of Albanian music creators who have the great merit of its leading to the path of professionalism. Along with Jakov, Zade, Daisa, Zoraqi and Harapi, the composer Lara made valuable contributions to the formation of a new tradition, a tradition which from year to year brought a series of developments and achievements, giving shape and a clear identity to our national music.

Thus, for almost 50 years, Lara created music focusing on his individual profile, especially in chamber music, in addition to cultivating many other forms and genres, from song to stage works. The order after all the forms, genres and genders of music has made Kozma Lara valuable as one of the composers with a wide dimension, whose creativity has flowed and moved naturally in the Albanian musical oasis.

Kozma Lara was born on January 4, 1930 in Durrës. He is the author of many musical creations, such as quartets, trios, romances, rhapsody, etc., and many songs for children. He was the President of the musical association “Tonin Harapi”, of the Festival of Albanian Romance, as well as a member of the League of Writers, Artists and Composers of Albania. Kozma Lara was born on January 4, 1930 in Durrës.

He took his first piano lessons from prof. Tonin Guraziu. In the years 1946-1949, he graduated from the general high school “16 Shtatori” in Durrës. He attends the artistic high school “Jordan Misja” in Tirana, where he graduates in the piano department with prof. Tonin Guraziu in 1954.

In 1958, he studied at the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow (former USSR), in the composition department, a student of Professor Sergey Artem’yevich Balasanian.

Over the years he has contributed to the People’s Army Ensemble, the Opera and Ballet Theater in Tirana, as a concertmaster, and the “Mujo Ulqinaku” high school of music, Durrës.

During the years 1964-1972, he contributed as a teacher of Analysis and Composition, at the same time Head of the Department of Composition-Conducting at the State Conservatory of Tirana. During the years 1972-1978 he was an inspector, specialist for Music in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Tirana. In 1979, he was a teacher of Harmony, Analysis and Orchestration at the “Jan Kukuzeli” high school of music, Durrës. From 1979 onwards, he was head of the Theory-Composition Department at the Faculty of Music, lecturer of Analysis and Composition. It was in 1995 when he retired, but still contributed as an external lecturer in the subject of Analysis and Composition at the University of Arts, Tirana.

 There is no doubt that Lara is the most productive, the most complete and the most specific in the national pianistic creation. In addition to his pianistic creativity, his profile is decently focused on chamber and vocal music, where he has provided valuable qualities. He passed away in 2019, at the age of 88, leaving behind a valuable contribution to the history of Albanian music.

/k.s/