Elina Duni

Who is Elina Duni?

Elina Duni is a Swiss-Albanian jazz singer.

She was born in Tirana, Albania, in 1981 during the Communist regime, into a family of artists. Her mother Bessa Myftiu and grandfather Mehmet Myftiu are writers, and her father Spiro Duni is an actor and theatre director. Elina Duni debuted onstage as a singer at the age of five and began studying the violin. From 1986 to 1991, she participated in several children’s festivals and sang for the National Albanian Radio and Television. In 1992 she settled in Geneva, Switzerland, along with her mother.

Between 2004 and 2008 she studied singing and composition at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, in the jazz department. During this time, she developed the Elina Duni Quartet with Colin Vallon on piano, Patrice Moret on double bass and Norbert Pfammatter on drums. This represented a return to her musical sources, a combination of Balkans folk songs and jazz.

In 2008 the CD Baresha, the first album of the Elina Duni Quartet, was released on Meta Records. This first musical departure with her quartet received acclaim from the German and Swiss press and was followed by European tours and festivals.