Vali, Reza

Reza Vali (Persian: رضا والی; born 1952 in Ghazvin) is an Iranian musician and composer. Reza Vali was born in Iran and studied at the Tehran Conservatory. In 1972, he attended the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, where he studied composition. He later attended the University of Pittsburgh where he received his PhD in composition and theory. Since 1988 he has been on the Carnegie Mellon University faculty. He received the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Sciences honor prize and two Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships. He also received commissions from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, and the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, as well as grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as the Outstanding Emerging Artist, for which he received the Creative Achievement Award. Vali's orchestral works have been performed in the United States by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Baltimore Symphony, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra 2001. His chamber music has been performed by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the Del Sol Quartet, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, and the Da Capo Chamber Players.