Eno Koço was born in Tirana, the capital of Albania, in 1943 into a musical family. His father was a baritone and his mother a prominent soprano with an international reputation.
He was orphaned at an early age and began violin studies at the age of seven, first in Tirana and then in Leningrad before graduating in 1966. He played the violin with the Tirana Opera Orchestra for six years and taught at the Tirana Conservatory and Music School where he made his official conducting début. He was then appointed conductor of the Albanian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra with whom he toured Yugoslavia and Turkey. He also conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in Egypt and was attached to the RAI Orchestra and Regio Opera in Turin, Italy. In 1984 the state nominated him Honoured Artist.
Eno Koço now lives in Leeds, and conducts widely throughout Britain. He has collaborated with Kingsway Music on the issue of two CDs of liturgical music arranged for strings, and has made two programmes on the music of Albania for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
He has been the principal conductor of the orchestra of the Department of Music in Leeds University for 8 years, directing many major works including recordings of music by Shostakovich, Lutoslawski and Tippet, as well as new music by James Brown and Philip Wilby.
He was awarded his PhD in 1998.
Artistic and academic qualifications
1984 Honoured Artist of Albania
1998 Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (The University of Leeds)
Artistic appointments
1966 Graduated from the Tirana Conservatory as a violinist
1966-72 Violinist with the Tirana Opera Orchestra
1972-78 Conductor of the Tirana Music School
1977 Graduated from the Tirana Conservatory as a conductor
1978-91 Conductor of the Albanian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra
1992-1999 Principal conductor of the Music Department of the University of Leeds (1992-)
Conductor of the York Symphony Orchestra (1993-95)
Conductor of the Harrogate Philharmonic Orchestra (1994-97)
Principal Conductor of the Yorchestra (1994-99)
Specialist teaching
Conducting, orchestration, violin, chamber music
Publications
Orchestration, Treatise, with Gj. Simoni, for secondary schools (Tirana, Sh . B . L . Sh ., 1977) 135 pp.
44 periodical articles and concert reviews, published between 1970-1991 in Albanian newspapers and magazines (in the Albanian language)
Unpublished
Arrangements of the urban lyric songs for piano and for symphony orchestra
Recordings
(On tapes) – Symphonic, instrumental and vocal music of Albanian and international composers (1973-99)
Two CD’s of liturgical music collaborated with Kingsway Music (1993)
Research
“The Albanian urban lyric song in the 1930s”, for a Ph.D. degree (1994-98).