Ismail Myrseli

Ismail Myrseli is a cultural researcher, music educator and social activist. He holds a degree in archaeology from the Faculty of Anthropology at the University of Prishtina and works as a cultural worker, artist and music educator. His work covers art education, production, booking and promotion of bands in the region, as well as film and ethnomusicological research. His career in the arts began at Manifesta, where he worked on various mediation topics related to art and urban space. He also works as a booking manager for experimental and alternative acts from Western and Central Europe. In 2023, he joined the education department of the National Gallery of Kosovo, where he works as a project manager and mediator.

Ismail Myrseli is a scholarship holder of the “Fokus International” program, which was launched in cooperation with the Austrian Ministry of Culture (BMKOES) in 2023. Young cultural workers from Kosovo (2023 – 2025) and South Africa (2025 – 2027) are invited to Austria to complete two-month internships at selected Viennese art institutions, thereby gaining work experience and enriching the host institution through their collaboration.Ismail Myrseli will complete an internship at mica - music austria during his two-month residency at the MQ.
Myrseli would also like to present his ethnomusicological study of the music scene in Prishtina and Belgrade. This will be complemented by archival material, visual drawings, memoirs and interviews with participants, offering an in-depth retrospective look at relationships based on the first anti-fascist and socialist alternative music gatherings. The story is traced through personal narratives of the participants interviewed: five from Kosovo and five from Serbia.