Tefta Tashko-Koço

Tefta Tashko was born on November 2, 1910, in Fayoum, Egypt, into a patriotic Albanian emigrant family from Korçë. Moving back to Korçë in 1921, her exceptional vocal talent won her a scholarship to the Conservatoire de Paris, where she studied operatic performance with distinction.

Tashko performed operatic roles by Mozart, Rossini, and Puccini in France before returning permanently to Albania in 1935. Traveling across cities with pianist Tonin Harapi, she elevated Albanian urban lyric songs (këngë qytetare korçare dhe shkodrane) into classical concert art. In 1937 and 1942, she traveled to Paris to record forty-five definitive tracks for Columbia Records, establishing the canonical recordings of Albanian vocal music before cancer ended her life at thirty-seven.