Elina Duni

I never wanted to be a singer with backing trio. From the beginning I gave a lot of space to the musicians for improvising, and experimented also with my voice. Its another instrument. Over time, we have built up an understanding that allows us to go anywhere.
 
Swiss-Albanian singer Elina Duni was born into a highly artistic family in Tirana in 1981 and first sang on stage at the age of five. In 1992 after the fall of the communist regime, she and her mother settled in Geneva. Soon after, she started classical piano lessons and discovered jazz, before going on to study singing and composition in the jazz department at the Hochschule der Künste Bern.
 
During this time she also developed the Elina Duni Quartet to explore her musical roots, a combination of Balkan folk [...]
I never wanted to be a singer with backing trio. From the beginning I gave a lot of space to the musicians for improvising, and experimented also with my voice. Its another instrument. Over time, we have built up an understanding that allows us to go anywhere.
 
Swiss-Albanian singer Elina Duni was born into a highly artistic family in Tirana in 1981 and first sang on stage at the age of five. In 1992 after the fall of the communist regime, she and her mother settled in Geneva. Soon after, she started classical piano lessons and discovered jazz, before going on to study singing and composition in the jazz department at the Hochschule der Künste Bern.
 
During this time she also developed the Elina Duni Quartet to explore her musical roots, a combination of Balkan folk songs and jazz. The quartet released its ECM debut, Matanë Malit (Beyond the Mountain), a musical homage to Albania, in 2012.
 
In 2015 her quartet released its second album for ECM, Dallëndyshe (The Swallow). Duni contrasted this with her first quartet recording thus: it has, she said, a different groove, a different momentum. Its become more rhythmic. Sometimes its almost a trance-like propulsion.  The album received great critical acclaim: a sheer delight, in the words of UK Vibes Tim Stenhouse.
 
Duni has said of her work with the quartet: We focus all the intensity that the poetry needs. We have tried to convey its essence through our musical interpretation. To me, all improvised music is a jazz state of mind. We feel no obligation to play a song the same way twice.
Read moreRead less
YEAR DATE Artist VENUE LOCATION
2023 June 04 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Amthof Feldkirchen, Austria Event
2023 June 05 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Porgy & Bess Vienna, Austria
2023 July 13 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Montreux Jazz Festival- Memphis Club Montreux, Switzerland
2023 September 02 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Jazz au peuple Nyon, Switzerland
2023 October 02 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Generations Jazz Festival Frauenfeld, Switzerland
2023 October 03 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Generations Jazz Festival Frauenfeld, Switzerland
2023 October 04 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Generations Jazz Festival Frauenfeld, Switzerland
2023 December 03 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Bee-Flat Bern, Switzerland
2023 December 13 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Stapleford Granary Arts Centre Cambridge, United Kingdom