A Kurdish composer, improviser and sound artist, Hardi Kurda began his music education at the Institute of Fine Art, Slemani (violin). He obtained his BA (2009) and MA (2012) degrees in music from the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg, majoring in composition, He studied also at the University of Music and Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. Now, he is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London. 

Hardi Kurda’s compositions involve suggestive and unusual sounds. The artist uses, among others, the radio to explore spectrum frequency as sound material. He creates a new space for every performance of his work, so that the music may find its proper sound. Besides composing classical acoustic and electronic music, Hardi Kurda develops pieces in which music interacts with different art forms in new art spaces to create new listening experiences. His works were performed in Sweden, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Kurdistan, the UK, and Lebanon, including Irtijal International Festival for Improvisation and Experimental Music, Berliner Festspiele MaerzMusik; and “Sound Place” exhibition and ShowRoom in London. His work was commissioned by the Department of Public Art in Gothenburg, the Swedish Art Council, and Goethe Institute. He recently received a new commission from the Swedish Art Council for his project “The Illegal Performance”. Hardi’s latest works The Magnified Face, the found score of Kurdish carpet, have been performed telepathically with Jennifer Walshe and Tomomi ADACHI inspiration from John Heartfield found footages organised by ADK in Berlin, curated by Julia Gerlach.

Hardi is a founder and curator of Space21 International Festival for Sound Art and Experimental Music in Kurdistan, he co-curated two years of the festival with the artist and author Brandon LaBelle. Besides, Hardi Kurda is Artist Director of Non-Ensemble, an interdisciplinary music platform in Sweden which seeks collaboration with various artists. In (2020) he became the fifth scholarship holder of the Radio Art Residency in Halle, Germany where he created two experimental radio performances: Listening Urgency, the found score of radio and Everything illegal, the found score of illegal stories, performed with Nina Guo, curated by Tina Klatte.

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