Elina Duni & Rob Luft
Biography Elina Duni & Rob Luft
Elina Duni
Born in Tirana, Albania, in 1981, Elina Duni made her first steps on the stage aged five, singing for National Radio and Television. In 1992, she settled in Geneva, where she started studying classical piano and subsequently discovered jazz. Jazz studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern led to the formation of her quartet with Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret and Norbert Pfammatter, a group that lasted for more than 10 years. The band’s interweaving of Balkan folk songs and improvising on albums including the ECM releases Matanë Malit (Beyond the Mountain) and Dallëndyshe (The Swallow), was widely praised for its subtly and adroitness.
In 2017 Duni recorded the remarkable solo album Partir, on which she played all the instruments and sang in nine languages. Her first concerts with Rob Luft extended the Partir project, the guitarist expanding the atmospheric sound-world of the songs with electronics and effects: this developed into a partnership where creative parameters were established by both musicians.
Rob Luft
was born in South London in 1993. He began playing with Britain’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra at 15, before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Music. On graduating in 2016 he received the academy’s Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize, and has since been the winner of a number of awards, most recently including the UK Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2025, where he was voted Instrumentalist of the Year.
