"At turns ambient and wildly avant-garde, Aliya Ultan's Nocturnal Cellist project slides in and out of the anarchaic. The glue between melodious and uprooted moments is a stranglehold on the air. It's as if the entire atmosphere of the room is ordered (and broken apart) by the whims of Ultan's bow." 

- Andy Phillips

"Aliya Ultan — the Nocturnal Cellist — is a composer-improviser from the road, now based in New York. Raised in motion, she turned to music as a survival instinct, and never stopped moving. Her cello becomes a voice of its own: orchestral and grungy, seductive and unhinged — a medium of myth, memory, and pure sensation." 

- Jetlag Music Festival 

I am interested in how we feel sound in our bodies. 

When playing the cello, I am as much focused on what my body insists upon as what the music calls for.

By listening with our whole being, music can function medicinally - heal us by transmuting pain and suffering into self expression.

The choreography of intuition into air...

notation 

As a composer-improvisor, notation has always been a major area of inquiry in my musical practice as it can facilitate immense freedom for collective consciousness if properly applied. 

During my studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music I studied classical music both as a cellist and composer, learning the history of Western notation in great detail. Later I began working with avant-garde jazz artists including Dr. Tyshawn Sorey whom opened my eyes and ears to another universe of possibilities involving the use of graphic notation, text scores, and charts. 

When composing for large ensembles both musical and beyond, I have become exceedingly interested in combining the language of Western notation with ancient symbology to guide and set-free those involved. 

Below are some examples of my work involving hybrid notation systems for large ensemble. 

• Orchestral
• Interdisciplinary Ensemble

In 2022-23, I hosted a monthly series in Redhook Brooklyn called the Wham Jams at the Record Shop. These were night long jams that welcomed musicians, dancers, poets, and visual artists to improvise in self-organized groups for 15-20 minute long sets. For the year that it ran, hundreds of creatives attended and/or participated forming projects due to their meeting at the event.