Widely considered by critics, media and the public as one of the most predominant and active artists in Albanian territories, Merita Rexha Tërshana continues a career long full of national accomplishments with extensive involvement in the continuity classical music appreciation among the Albanian public. Winner of an impressive number of national awards in particular Performer of the Year at the Contemporary Albanian Music Festival (1996) awarded by a french composer G.Boeuf led jury, Performer of the Year at the Kult Award (2010, 2016) after being nominated for 6 consecutive years.
Born in Tirana, she starts her journey at the young age of 6 at “Kongresi Përmetit” school, switching to “Jordan Misja” artistic lyceum under the guidance of Nadjezhda Porodini proceeding secondary school. Graduating from the University of Arts in Tirana as part of Prof. Margarita Kristidhi’s class, she undertakes numerous post-graduate courses in Germany from acclaimed professors like Paul Badura-Skoda and Till Engel. Tërshana has been working at the University of Arts in Tirana since 1994, firstly as a concertmaster and then being promoted to a pedagogue in 2002.
As a soloist she has played along numerous orchestras including that of the Albanian Radio Television (RTSH), University of Arts, Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Philarmonia Orchestra of Tirana and Philharmonia Orchestra of Kosovo under the direction of well known albanian and foreign conductors such as B.Llapaj, A. Lepuri, J. Barbullushi, L. Quadrini, N. Marin and D. Savic among others. Additionally Merita Tërshana has been invited as a soloist to prestigious and renowned chamber music festivals in Albania and Europe, namely Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany), Bregenz Festpiel (Austria), Grosseto Musica Festival (Italy) etcetera.
With a diverse repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, Tërshana has been continuously invited to a variety of the most prestigious festivals of the region such as Remusika Festival (Kosovo), KamerFest (Kosovo) Ohrid Summer Fest (Macedonia), Pianodrom (Albania), International Festival of Chamber Music (Albania) etcetera. In the previous year, she joined the well-known Different Trains Festival and Balkan Contemporary Music Festival for the first time. Her performances have reached stages in Europe including Germany, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Macedonia, and spreading to Japan.
Merita Rexha Tërshana has been the first performer of a great number of piano pieces from Albanian composers, namely Xenaki’s work at the Autumn Festival in Tirana (1998), where Xenaki himself was part of the audience. A number of noteworthy artists who Tërshana has played chamber music alongside to are Klaidi Sahatçi, Rudens Turku, Ermir Abeshi, Andrej Bielow, Areta Zhulla, Kristi Gjezi,Tomas Leleu, Premusl Vojta, Loïc Schneider, Roberto Trainini, etc. In 2009 she recorded a CD with Schumann’s works and 2 cd with works from albanian composers. She is currently a Professor of Piano at the University of Arts in Tirana, vice Dean of Faculty of Music and Chair Piano Department.
