| Gjok Nonaj | |
 | |
| Birth: | 13 February 1910 Lezhe, Albania |
| Death: | 26 July 2017 Lezhe, Albania |
| Age: | 107 years, 163 days |
| Country: |  ALB
|
| Centenarian | |
Gjok Nonaj (13 February 1910 – 26 July 2017) was an Albanian centenarian who, at the time of his death, was the oldest known living person in Albania. He was also the oldest musician in Albania and Europe.
Biography[]
Gjok Nonaj was born in the municipality of Lezhe, Albania on 13 February 1910. Nonaj was 10 years old when he learned to play the lute and said that "I will never part with it". The ancient lute player Nonaj passed this tradition on to his granddaughter Lumturia Nonaj, who is the only lute player in Albania, but also to his grandchildren Giovalina and Geta Nonaj.
He last appeared on stage at the 2015 Gjirokastra Folklore Festival.
At the Gjirokastra Folklore Festival in 2015, Lahutari Gjok Nonaj was the oldest performer to sing on the Albanian stage, and even appreciated the oldest rhapsody in Europe and beyond. In his last public appearance, in Gjirokastra, the then 105-year-old rhapsodist Nonaj interpreted the epic song "Fukia e Mujit", a rhapsodic fragment separated from the epic about Kresnjici. The epic about the Knights Templar (or the cycle of the Knights Templar) are epic songs, where the songs are mostly accompanied by a lute.
A few days before his death, his health deteriorated and he was hospitalized in Lezhë, Albania.
Nonaj died in Lezhe, Albania on 26 July 2017, at the age of 107 years, 163 days. He was buried in the cemetery in Koder Marlekaj, Lezhe, Albania. Following his death then-107-year-old Zenepe Pirani become the oldest known living person in Albania.
Gallery[]
References[]
- RAPSODI 105 VJEÇAR, I FYER NGA FESTIVALI: “NUK SHKOJ MË DHE SIKUR TË MË LUTEN” Historia Ime, 21 May 2015
- Ka vdekur rapsodi Gjok Nonaj në moshën 107 vjeçare Kultplus, 27 July 2017