Complex is the musical universe of maestro Ilir Bajri, and this is investigated even when he does not talk about big phenomena or topics, but simply unfolds his life journey. The entry into the world of music was almost predetermined, its study was determined by a failure and a quick answer he gave to his father, but access to music is neither accidental nor predetermined. There, the outstanding pianist and composer is in constant and uncompromising search. Bajri talks about the meeting, the piano and the first teacher, about the composer who left him in the first year but from whom he took a lesson, about performing in cafes and on stage, about the concert at the UN, about experimenting in music and about many other things.
Uncompromising and permanent seeker, it would be the first brief description of Ilir Bajri in the attempt to unravel his approach to the study of music. When he performs, he is completely immersed in the space of the stage. He is among those who avoided the formalities of concerts. His account leads to this conclusion.
The well-known musician and composer Ilir Bajri is today among the most popular music figures in the country. When talking about jazz music, for many it is an inspiration even today. This is also said by his successor jazz musicians. His path with music and composition is such only because he, maestro Bajri, had dared to experiment and follow his desires.

As a child he was introverted and everything outside his room was awkward. At one point even hostile. His peculiarities even as a child, now that they are seen in perspective, are the first signs of a personality that traces the new in music as well. Bajri does not ignore the standard in any case. If one looks at his artistic life in retrospect, every chapter proves this. Born in 1969 in Peja, Bajri lived in his hometown until the age of 17. His room filled with books was the first place where he played musical sounds. He also studied there. Even today, although he does not praise the educational system in which he was educated, his story proves that he likes to remain a self-taught student forever. Curiosity drives him to always learn new things.
The piano, a gift before the house
"Continuous attempts to get out of solitude and enter society have been repeated failures. And I have returned home often depressed by the way we treat each other", Bajri confessed on the KTV show "Pro X". He says the greatest luck was his father, who he calls an extraordinary person and very supportive of him. At the age of 5 he had sensed his desire for music and asked him what instrument he wanted to play. His answer had been the piano. Months later, his father, Adem Bajri, had gone to Belgrade to buy the piano for him. When he remembers that moment, the musician still gets the same thrill. Although he says he doesn't remember much from the past and his childhood, this was one of the moments he remembers clearly. So the emotion is repeated.
"When I saw that big wooden box in front of the house, which had the shape of a piano, like today's children who enjoy the PlayStation", says Bajri not without emotion, when he remembers playing in a room full of his father's books , different languages. He says that this was a kind of "internet" for him, which quenched his curiosity and gave him a stronger reason to stay at home.
The teacher who opened the doors for him
When he talks about music, he attributes his development in this field to his music teacher, Shyqrije Ymeri, who was a friend of his mother and taught Bajri at home. He describes her as the best teacher of his life.

"She has offered me the world of music in a very gentle and stimulating way. She never forced me to do anything. He spent the whole time trying to understand what I like so that he can then offer me exactly those", Bajri confessed. He says he didn't find this gentleness until later, but it was lucky for him that he had started the lesson with a stimulating approach. During high school, Bajri had come out of his introvert nature a bit and music had remained more in the shadows. His rebellion against the "system" of education and society had begun there. But the desire for technology and mathematics guided him during these years. There, Bajri is "undressed" from the title of excellent student and hanging out with weaker students made him not very clear about what he will study.
Dropout of construction, music student
He chose construction, and a conflict with one of the professors made him leave the faculty entirely. This makes his face a little red even after almost three decades.
"I wanted to go and tell my father that I left the faculty. He supported me in everything. When I told him and he asked me: 'What are you going to do', as if without planning, it came out of my mouth: 'Music'", Bajri confessed. But Bajri failed the entrance exam at the Faculty of Music. One of the professors had told him: "It's good to look at another faculty, they're not all about music." This only increased his will to prepare to become a music student throughout the summer. The time of studies was a chapter of new conflicts.
"I continue with the faculty, I remain very depressed, because I came with a lot of will and a great desire to learn, with the conviction that the University will be the period that will be a time when I will grow even more", he said. he showed. After that, he was followed by an unbearable lack of relationships, which Bajri calls rigid and inhumane. This had made Bajri more of an autodidact than a disciplined student. And he was happy with that too. That research and the need to compensate for the lack of music books at the Faculty had pushed him to learn more by personal will and desire. For Bajri, this also meant the freedom to experiment more with tools and expressions.
Learning from the loss of the first year
"This has sent me on different paths, some of which have turned out to be very fruitful in that baking process", he emphasized. When he talks about his academic journey, he remembers that he lost his first year. But it had helped him transform for the better. He attributes this to the composer Vinçenc Gjini, whom he calls the best professor he ever had and who was among the rare ones who had a professional book.
"That's where I realized how important it is for someone to stay and offer me friendship and sincerity. Don't deceive me anymore, don't lie anymore", Bajri confessed further.
The jazz musician remembers his studies as days full of music. He had also been an external collaborator of the professional Choir of RTP. This had been a special experience for him. Then he also played with the Radiotelevision Orchestra of Pristina. Ilir Bajri has participated in various concerts as a soloist or with other artists in Italy, Spain and the USA. As a composer, he creates music for theater and film. Bajri has been active in the field of film and video production since 1994, especially in the field of computer animation.
December 1998 concert at the UN
He still remembers the concert of December 1998, where he performed at the United Nations in New York at the invitation of actress Vanessa Redgrave, on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There, Bajri had played the piece "Simply Beautiful" on the piano.
"That whole moment still seems like a dream to me and I never know how it happened. I spent the New Year of '99 in New York and then returned to Kosovo as a refugee. All those years have been a separate film", he further explained in the "Pro X" show of KTV.
Bajri's solo concerts are very rare. With the "Introspective" concert at "Peja Jazz Week" he had broken down his musical universe with a recital concert in December 2020. He held the concert in his hometown with a distance after eight years.
Bajri has a clear answer for this. "I play hajgare, I say I'm more of a coffee musician", says Bajri, who is active in such musical evenings. And between playing in the cafe and at the concert, he says that he has his own feeling, which the main character of jazz in Kosovo experiences as very special.
"The concert environment is a bit stressful and a bit restrictive even though the conditions may be ideal and people may be listening to you. The reconstruction of that situation knows how to limit me", said Bajri. He points out that even performing in a cafe is a challenge in itself. But when the noise stops to give way to music, for Bajri it is one of the most beautiful experiences while playing.
"If you play something and people who are just having a good time stop and listen, then you're doing something right," he emphasizes.
Meeting with the Marshall, the decade of the Festival
In 2002, the meeting with the famous American jazz drummer Eddie Marshall (April 13, 1938 – September 7, 2011) and performing with him in Pristina filled his mind to take further steps for a jazz festival in the Kosovar capital. However, everything was realized due to his insistence and encouragement after Bajri had revealed his idea to him. For ten editions, the festival has gathered over 200 well-known jazz artists and around 70 musical evenings and many workshops have been held. When talking about the festival, Bajri is very modest. He says that he is the result of his friends and supporters.
"In 2005, with more courage and stubbornness, I started the festival without even having the idea of how it is done and how much work is needed", explained Bajri. He measures the success of a decade of the jazz festival by the opportunity it has given to young people to create a platform that is an opportunity to experiment and have the opportunity to express themselves in different forms.
In recent years, the musician Ilir Bajri has started programming. He has learned a lot. Knows codes and essentials within programming languages. He is self-taught in this regard. There he made music and technology together by producing virtual instruments. A number of them have been published "online" that are part of the public domain platform where they can be obtained for free. Initially he had been satisfied if a maximum of 30 people would use them. Five years later they have become very popular, being published in the main virtual instrument magazines in Europe and the world.
"Over 100 downloads have occurred in the last two years. I am motivated to work even harder to create new instruments", said Bajri. The next goal is to integrate such branches in schools. It also plans to create a more experimental city ensemble. Research remains the field with which he wants to intervene in many aspects of music.