bio

photo by Tibi Romanti

Aliya Ultan (AKA Nocturnal Cellist) is a composer-performer and multimedia artist from Brooklyn, NY. Her career spans from contemporary and avant garde music to theater, circus, and immersive electroacoustic installations. Her sound has been described as a shape-shifting voice moving between orchestral lyricism, cathartic noise, and deeply personal forms of storytelling.

As a performer and improviser, Aliya has collaborated with luminaries such as John Lurie (The Lounge Lizards), electroacoustic pioneer David Behrman, Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes), and composer-performers Tim Berne, Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, David Torn, and George Lewis among others. Her interdisciplinary spirit frequently leads her to perform with puppeteers, dancers, and circus acrobats associated with Cirque du Soleil, Bread and Puppet, and Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater most notably touring with the internationally renowned Puerto Rican performance collective, Poncili Creación.

Aliya maintains a robust concert schedule across classical, jazz, rock-pop, and contemporary contexts, regularly performing and composing for the International Contemporary Ensemble, Either/Or Ensemble, and various big bands. Through these diverse collaborations, she has appeared on Broadway, the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Blue Note, Birdland Jazz Club, Barclays Center, BAM, La MaMa, Issue Project Room, The Public Theater, Roulette Intermedium and more.

Following her self-released album Witch Hunt, which she supported with a sweeping 40-date tour in exclusively artist-run spaces across the US and Canada, Aliya most recently released Looks Far Woman on Kou Records. Produced by Randall Dunn (Björk, Sunn O))), Jóhann Jóhannsson), the project explores the outer limits of the acoustic cello as both a vibrational and healing phenomenon.

Aliya holds a BM from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in cello and composition under the tutelage of composer, Dr. Stephen Hartke and cellist, Darrett Adkins. Additionally, Aliya began a MM at Wesleyan University under the tutelage of composers Alvin Lucier and Dr. Tyshawn Sorey before leaving due to Covid. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA.

Aliya currently splits her time between Virginia and New York serving as Artistic Director for The Creative Music Studio, a non-profit organization founded by Ornette Coleman and Karl Berger.