Dimitrios Lalas

Lalas was born in 1844 or 1848 in Magarevo, then Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia).[1][2] He studied in Monastir, Thessaloniki, Athens and later in 1868-70 in the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.[1] In 1870 he appears to have met the great German composer Richard Wagner and by 1876 he was his student and collaborator.[1][2]

He soon became the conductor of an Orchestra in Salzburg, while in Presburg he replaced the conductor Hans Richter at a concert of Wagner's works in the presence of Wagner himself.[1][2] During 1877-1881 he taught music in Chalki, and later settled in Thessaloniki. He was the teacher of Emilios Riadis.[1][3]

He cooperated with fellow Greek Macedonians, with whom he co-founded "Macedonian Defense" at the end of 1902, committees of which appeared in Greek Macedonian towns and villages, preparing its inhabitants for the upcoming Macedonian Struggle.[1] At some point, before 1906, Lalas composed a musical work on the Macedonian Struggle, entitled "Makedonikos Paian" (Μακεδονικός Παιάν).[1][2]

He died of cholera in 1911 in Monastir, and his works were lost in 1917.[1]

^α Lalas was born and had origin from Magarevo, a Vlachophone town of mostly ethnic Greek consciousness. He also himself stated that he was a descendant of Ancient Greeks.[1][2]