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.
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YEAR DATE Artist VENUE LOCATION
2025 April 27 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Ethnos Wroclaw, Poland
2025 May 01 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

BeJazz Bern, Switzerland
2025 May 02 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Chorus Lausanne, Switzerland
2025 May 16 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

La Belle Vie Festival Sézanne, France
2025 May 23 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Café Charbon Nevers, France
2025 May 30 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Stimmen Festival Ettiswil, Switzerland
2025 June 05 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Jazz House Leicester, United Kingdom
2025 June 14 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Vortex London, United Kingdom
2025 October 17 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Alter Schlachthof Eupen, Belgium
2025 October 18 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Festival Harelbeke, Belgium
2025 November 06 Elina Duni / Rob Luft

"A Time To Remember"

Jazzclub Regensburg, Germany