Elina Duni

Elina Duni (born March 10, 1981, Tirana, Albania) is a Swiss-Albanian jazz singer and composer. She left Albania at the age of ten to live and study in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] She went on to study jazz at the University of the Arts Bern in Switzerland, but from 2004 onwards Albanian folk music became a prime influence. At this moment, in 2004, she formed a quartet under her own name with the distinguished Swiss jazz pianist Colin Vallon, in-demand bassist Patrice Moret & veteran drummer Norbert Pfammatter. In a review John Fordham concluded that "This quartet definitely sounds like rising star material for ECM."[2] After two albums, “Baresha” (2008) and “Lume Lume” (2010), both on Meta Records, the quartet went on to release for the distinguished German record label ECM Records in 2012, with “Matanë Malit” (Beyond the Mountain) and in 2015, “Dallëndyshe” (Swallow), which were both praised by the wider European media for their lightness as well as their subtle manner of exploring Albanian folklore. In 2014, she released her 1st album as a singer-songwriter in Kosovo and Albania, entitled “Muza e Zezë” (The Black Muse). In 2017, she was nominated to receive the annual Swiss Music Prize and in October of the same year she started a new project - a duo with the highly acclaimed London jazz guitarist Rob Luft. Finally, the project entitled “Partir”, a solo programme in which she accompanies herself on piano, acoustic guitar and percussion was released on ECM Records in April 2018 to widespread critical acclaim, with many citing its intimacy & haunting beauty as being a highlight of ECM's release schedule in that calendar year.

Elina Duni playing in Rome, 2019