“Amen theren e musika ano vast!” (“Abbiamo la musica nelle braccia”): Hatixhe Korlak.

In Kosovo the music is a profession that has continuously provided Gypsies. Roms musicians and their audiences believe that Roms are excellently gifted for music and therefore better musicians than non-Roms. If many proverbial expressions such as playing “like a Gypsy” - meaning extraordinarly - attest their musical ability, on the other hand Roms themselves tell “amen theren e musica ano vast” (“we have the music in the arms”). About the kosovar music tradition, the frame drum players, female and male Gypsy musicians, are highly qualified professionals. They are performers in a society that can be describe as multietnhic, multilingual and multireligious and they have to please a variety of audiences. This interpreters and performers, usually in two, sing to the frame drum accompaniment for female audiences, learn the local repertoires in order to be indispensable at weddings, circumcisions and other celebrations. They represent a cultural niche; the music they play to accompany the frame drum is part of an ancient tradition and of the cultural identity for Roms and for the other ethnic groups in that area. Today, all over Kosovo, remain few frame drum players. To assess specifically the interpreters and performers of this tradition of Kosovo, in their styles, attitudes and way of making music this article give a biographical account of one of the major musician of this tradition: Hatixhe Korlak, a frame drum player of Prizren.