Swiss-Albanian jazz singer and composer Elina Duni was born on March 10, 1981, in Tirana, Albania. Raised in a family of artists and writers, she became interested in music at a young age and began singing and studying the violin at the age of 5. In 1992, she left Albania to study in Geneva, Switzerland. After studying at the Geneva Music Conservatory, she embarked on a career between theater, film, and singing and joined the jazz department of the Univeristy of the Arts in Bern from 2004 to 2008. She formed her own quartet in 2004 – including pianist Colin Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret, and drummer Norbert Pfammater – and released her first two albums: Baresha (2008) and Lume Lume (2010). Signing to the ECM label, the quartet then released the albums Matanë Malit (2012) and Dallëndyshe (2015). In between those albums, she issued Muza e Zezë (2014) in Kosovo and Albania, which was her first album as a singer-songwriter. After collaborating with Albanian rock group Retrovizorja and French jazz composer and musician André Manoukian, Elina Duni released the more intimate Partir (2018), which found the artist accompanying herself on guitar and piano. In 2020, she formed a new group featuring guitarist (and romantic partner) Rob Luft, pianist Fred Thomas and flugelhorn player Matthieu Michel and released the albums Lost Ships (2020) and A Time to Remember (2023).
