Dimitrios Stergios Lalas or Lallas ( Greek: Δημήτριος Στέργιος Λάλας ή Λάλλας) was a significant Greek composer and musician.
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]