Italian-Albanian new radio station starts in Durres, first karaoke night held

DURRES, Aug. 7 – A new Italian-Albanian radio station started broadcast last weekend in Durres during three days of festivities of a tourist package titled ‘Three days and three nights enjoyment without borders’ held Aug. 10-12. The new radio station has offices in Salento in Italy and also in Durres. It will also have its Internet website.
Festivities will also be broadcast live in the Sant Orazio square in the Italian town of Lecce and the Otranto castle in big screens. Some Italian folk groups from Salento region in southern Italy will come to take part and also taste the Albanian cooking and welcome. An Italian group of tourists came to visit Durres cultural heritage places. Organizers aim to turn it into an annual festivity, according to Durres prefect Klodian Pajuni. There will be many concerts, competitions and other activities organized from Albanian authorities and the Italian ones. There will participate Italian groups of ethnic music like Opa cupa, of youth music Nini d’arac or alternative music Apre la classe with Italian tenors Corrado Amici, Gulielmo de Filippo and Sergio Pannagia, who come under the assistance of the pianist Aksinja Xhoja. There will also be Albanian music groups and singers like Nora Istrefi, Tingulli 3 and West Side Family.
The annual summer festivities ‘Crazy in Salento’ is dedicated to Durres this year, according to Klodiana Cuka, head of the Italian association “Arte e comunicazione.” Activities also aim at urging Albanian immigrants to Italy to return to their homeland.
The port city of Durres also has followed the karaoke concerts at the Taulantia square with the participation of young and amateur singers. Denis Hasa and Enxhi Vala were winners of the first three-hour evening, according to Driada Dervishi, head of Aleksander Moisiu theatre. Participating were also well known singers like Bujar Qamili, Eranda Libohova and Poni and also humor actors Muharrem Hoxha and Roland Ko衮 The karaoke concerts will be held in two other weekends.
Many cultural activities have been held in Durres this summer.
Durres residents and tourists also tasted and applauded the concert of the violin players from Greece of a group named Bridge from Athens. They played parts from Mozart, Shostakovich and the Albanian composer Hajk Zaharian. The Greek quartet was made up of Vaso Papa (Albania), Svetlana Sheveleva (Uzbekistan), Mikhail Smirnov (Russia) and Yannis Pavlidis (Greece) and other players from the “Camerata” and “Friends of Music” orchestras and from the Athens state orchestra. Austrian and Italian players had participated in similar events before. Albanian players in immigration will end the festivities.