The Swiss composer, saxophonist and scholar Bardia Charaf bridges genres with his unique musical language.
His repertoire stretches from solo literature to chamber music, big band and choir, from contemporary performance and musical theatre to symphonic works.
Bardia Charaf is regularly invited to national and international festivals. He has performed as a composer, conductor or instrumentalist at festivals such as Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Sevilla (E), Festival Freunde Alter Musik (CH), Bielsko-Biala Jazz Festival (PL), Jazz Plaza (Kuba), Jazzparade (CH), Generations (CH), Jazznojazz (CH).
Born in 1982 in Zurich, Bardia Charaf has completed four Master’s degrees:
saxophone, composition and conducting (graduation 2004, summa cum laude) at the University of Arts of Cuba; piano and pedagogy studies at the Zurich University of the Arts; composition and theory at the Bern University of the Arts; and a Master’s in ‘Research on the Arts’ at the University of Bern. He is currently completing his doctoral thesis on orchestral techniques of the 19th and 20th centuries at the University of Zurich.
Bardia Charaf has a special preference for early music, such as the Middle Eastern tradition, and he has studied and immersed himself in it for years. He is equally fascinated by historical performance practices.
Bardia Charaf lives in Zurich.