Engjëll Berisha, a musicologist, university professor, and academic, was born in Prizren and was part of the first generation of graduates from the School of Music in Prizren (1949-1953). He studied in the theoretical-pedagogical section at the Academy of Music in Belgrade and completed his postgraduate studies in musicology at the Academy of Music in Sarajevo in 1981, graduating with a thesis titled “The Development of Styles in the Works of Kosovo Albanian Composers,” published in 1997. Berisha taught the history of music at the high school of music in Prizren from 1958 to 1968, led the school choirs and the cultural-artistic society “Dawn” (“Agimi“), and continued his career at the Higher Pedagogical School in Pristina from 1968 to 1975, where his publication “Historia e muzikës” (“The History of Music”) (1975) contributed significantly to university literature. For two decades, he published numerous papers and studies on musical creativity in Kosovo and maintained a long-term teaching role in music history, even after retirement. He presented historical and musical material in a university context, which he summarized in “Studime dhe vështrime mbi muzikën” (“Studies and Views on Music”) (2004), where he also published the textbook “Arti Muzikor” (“Musical Art“) for high schools. Berisha received several awards, including the national award for lifetime achievement “Nikete Dardani” from the Ministry of Culture in 2014, and he passed away in 2015. (In the photo: Engjël Berisha)
Text: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Kosovo – Vol. I , Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Prishtina, 2018, page 160.
Photo: © https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engj%C3%ABll_Berisha
Graphic processing: AHCF
