Xhoni Athanas
Albanian operatic tenor
Xhoni Athanas (November 4, 1925 – October 1, 2019), also known as Gjoni Athanas or John Athanas, was an Albanian-American operatic tenor. He received numerous awards during his career as an opera singer, including Artist i Merituar (Merited Artist), Medalja e Mirnjohjes (Medal of Gratitude), Mjeshter i Madh (Great Master), all awarded by the Albanian Presidents, and Lifetime achievement award awarded by the Albanian-American organization AANO in Boston.
He is remembered for his portrayal of Scanderbeg in the opera Skenderbeu by Albanian composer Prenk Jakova.
Early life
Xhoni was born on November 4, 1925, in Brockton, Massachusetts. His parents, Olympia and Thanas, both of Albanian origin, had lived in America as immigrants for almost 20 years. Two years after Xhoni's birth, the family returned to Albania, to the region of Korca.
From an early age, Xhoni started to sing Byzantine psalms in the Christian Orthodox Church of Grapsh, a small village in the region of Korca, Albania, where his father served as minister. His father had a musical education, and would perform music in the church he practiced in. He encouraged his son to pursue a singing career. The music of his father's church services, as well as Korca's folk songs, served as a foundation for Xhoni's vocal education.
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This entry incorporates text from “Xhoni Athanas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.