Geni Skendo

Geni Skendo is a contemporary flute & shakuhachi player fluent in jazz, classical, and Japanese traditional music idioms. Originally from Albania, Geni came to the United States in 2002 to further his musical studies. Prior to leaving Albania, he performed with the Albanian National Folk Ensemble, various symphonic orchestras, and jazz bands.

Upon his arrival in the US, Geni began to study jazz flute and the Japanese five-hole flute known as the shakuhachi, completting a Masters Degree in Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory with a focus on jazz flute and shakuhachi performance.

Geni has performed with the Violent Femmes ?

Bob Moses

drums
b.1948

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Moses ? Matt Marvuglio ?

Allan Chase

saxophone, alto
b.1956

" data-original-title="" title="">Allan Chase,

Joe Morris

bass, acoustic
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Morris, Jerry Leake,

John Lockwood

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">John Lockwood, Bob Gulioti, Bob Nitscke ? Felice Pomeranz ? Dave Clark ? Elena Zoubareva ?

David Fiuczynski

guitar
b.1964

" data-original-title="" title="">David Fiuczynski ?

Mark Walker

drums
b.1961

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Walker ? Sal Difusco ? Joe Hunt ? Dave Harris ? Jerry Beaudin ? NewPoli.

Geni's recording credits include CDs with Joe Morris, Dave Fuze, Newpoli, and Elena Zoubareva. As a bandleader, he released two CDs: ��Portraits: Contemporary Duets for Shakuhachi & Piano" and ��Stella,�� a global jazz album. In 2009, he published an instructional shakuhachi play-along book that teaches traditional Japanese Minyo folk songs, Geni is currently working on a woodwind book with exercises derived from Messiaen modes. Publishing date spring 2011.

Geni Skendo: Breaking Free

by Gordon Marshall
March 1, 2011

Flautist and shakuhachi master Geni Skendo does not genre-mash so much as genre-crash, like a late-night interloper joining a lame party and livening it up with exotic sound. It's miraculous, this color he brings to anything, given the drab Iron Curtain he exited under on his flight from his native Albania, traveling to Boston, Massachusetts to study at Berklee College of Music in 2002. Shy but my no means timid, he has rendered his jolt of culture shock into a ...