Elina Duni and Dora Balo

Photo: Clément Puig

Born in Tirana, Albania in 1981, Elina Duni grew up in a family of artists and first took to the stage at the age of five. In 1992 she moved to Switzerland, where she studied classical piano and discovered jazz. In 2008, she completed her studies in singing, composition and pedagogy at the Jazz Department of the Bern University of the Arts. From 2005 to 2016, she released four albums and toured throughout Europe with the Elina Duni Quartet, performing a mixture of Balkan folk songs and jazz. She also began her long-standing collaboration with the renowned label ECM Records. In 2017, she won the Swiss Music Prize and was a mentor at the Montreux Jazz Academy. In 2018, Elina's solo creation ‘Partir’, in which she accompanies herself on guitar, piano and percussion, was acclaimed by the European press. In November 2020, her latest album ‘Lost Ships’ was released, which she recorded together with guitarist Rob Luft.

Photo: Regina Jäger

Dora Balo (b. 1995) is a Hungarian singer who was born and raised in Serbia, where she studied and created music until her first MA in jazz singing. In 2020 she moved to Switzerland, where she graduated from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in vocal pedagogy in spring 2022. She enjoys making music alone, in a duo, but most of all with her five-piece band, with whom she plays her own compositions. Dora Balo writes these songs in Hungarian and firmly believes that more people should get to know this beautiful language. Her sound is very special – in addition to jazz, there are a few pop influences, but elements of Hungarian folk music can also be heard. This transports the audience to a special atmosphere.