Kono was born on 22 January 1907 in Korçë, back then still part of the Ottoman Empire, today's southeastern Albania. His interest in music showed up at a very early age. He followed the "Vatra" orchestral band in order to learn how to play the clarinet. In the 1920s he would start to compose songs and small instrumental parts. In 1927, he went to Paris to study music at the Conservatoire de Paris but stayed there only 15 months. He moved to Milan and enrolled in the Giuseppe Verdi conservatoire. Finishing his studies in 1932, he returned home. In September of the same year, Kono participated in a concert of the cultural society "Skanderbeg" of Korçë, where he showed his skills for the first time before the Albanian public. The first post-study years he worked as a music teacher in the city ofGjirokaster and in the National Lyceum of his hometown, one of the most accredited schools of that time within Albania. At both schools he set up choirs and orchestras, and performed for the public. At the same time, he began working with renowned artistic choir "Lira". After creating romances like Asnjë shpresë, Vjollcat, and Ktheju based on Hilë Mosi's lyrics, he composed some well known urban lyrical songs which were sung by singers such as Truja and Tashko-Koço. The most known were Kur më vjen burrin nga stani, and Kur m'u rrite vogëloshe based on lyrics from Poradeci, and Fol e qesh moj sylarushe based on the lyrics of Milto Sotir Gurra. A less known side of his work was as a folklorist; he engaged in collecting and processing for the chorus many folkloric songs, giving them new quality and value. This work was converged in the publication of two choralrhapsodies. The "Albanian Rhapsody No. 1" was based on southern-Albania folk motives and performed with great success in Tirana on 28 November 1942, the Albanian Flag Day.
Rise as a composer
After World War II, Kono's artistic creative intensified. Hee went back deeper in the study of folk songs and patriotic songs. His big jump in fame came with the composition of major choral and instrumental works; instrumental poems and cantata. They were the first of their kind in Albania. The best known were the instrumental poems Borova and Labëria, and the cantata Malli për atdhe. His most known concert-instrumental works consist of Fantazi shqiptare, Valle shqiptare, the fantasiaMezhgorani, and the poem for orchestra Bredhat e Drenovës. Kono wrote many instrumental pieces of different formations, from suites for orchestra, ensemble pieces for flute, oboe, violin, piano, clarinet, etc. His operettaAgimi of 1954 paved the way for the development of opera in Albania. After that, he composed two other operettas, Së bashku jeta është e bukur in 1957, and Brigadierja in 1968. The opera Lulja e kujtimit based on Foqion Postoli's work with the same title, which performed the first time in November 1961, is considered his masterpiece. It performed several times by the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Kono died in 1991 in Korçë.
