TIRANA, Jan. 3 – Performing the famous Strauss ‘Blue Danube’ waltz, Austrian artists wore Albanian traditional hats and drank raki alcoholic drinks in their debut Tirana concert with Shkelzen Doli, an Albanian-Kosovo Vienna Philharmonic violinist who entertained Albanians with his private Philharmonic Ensemble Vienna band.
The much-expected concert came to Tirana on Jan. 2, only one day after the Albanian violin virtuoso performed with the world famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra as a second violin. Thirty-six Austria-based artists joined the Philharmonic Ensemble Vienna, a band established by Shkelzen Doli in 2013, to perform in Tirana in a concert that Doli described as “bringing to Albania for the first time native pearls of Austrian art to wish all Albanians a happy and harmonious year.”
The Vienna artists also performed some Albanian pieces with a focus on motifs from the Albanian Arberesh, an ethnic Albanian community who moved to southern Italy in the 15th century in the Skanderbeg era. A documentary also showcased Albanian territories and landscapes accompanied by wonderful sounds of Doli’s violin including his Arberesha (The Arberesh woman), Albanian Soul and Baresha (The Shepherdess).
“Talking to my Vienna Philharmonic colleagues who were very curious about the Albanian melodies was the first push for the concert and with the introduction of these beautiful Albanian melodies at the Vienna concert we thought why not bring Vienna to Tirana,” Doli told the Albanian public broadcaster, RTSH, where the concert was aired.
“And the goal was making this concert traditional. That is where its strength stands because it gives Albania a new concert that comes directly from an ancient culture to give a new impetus to Albania’s art and culture life,” he adds.
Doli, 45, who has been part of the Vienna Philharmonic since 2009 as the second violin says the variety of Albanian music and his nostalgia while living abroad has been a source of inspiration for him.
Sadik Llapashtica, an Albanian investor who organized the event, has described Doli’s concert as a good omen for more optimism.
“The message is clear and perfect. Classical music and the Vienna New Year atmosphere to Tirana so that we can mark the New Year with more hope and inspiration for a happier and more optimistic life toward European integration,” Llapashtica has told Tirana Times.
Born to a Kosovo father from Gjakova and an Albanian mother from Permet in Elbasan, Doli left Albania in the 1980s when he was only seven to settle in Kosovo where he took his first music lessons before graduating from Vienna’s prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in the early 1990s.
