Yuriy Gurzhy

born in 1975 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. As a musician, composer, DJ, and author, Gurzhy has started and shaped numerous projects, including RotFront, Shtetl Superstars, The Disorientalists, and Kaminer & Die Antikörpers. In addition, he has curated and released more than a dozen internationally acclaimed compilations on renowned European labels. His literary debut, »Richard Wagner & die Klezmerband. Auf der Suche nach dem neuen jüdischen Sound in Deutschland« [tr.: Richard Wagner & the Klezmer Band. In Search of the New Jewish Sound in Germany], was published in 2022. From February 2022 to April 2024, he kept a war diary for the »Tagesspiegel«, documenting the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine from a personal perspective. Yuriy Gurzhy regularly composes for theater productions, among others at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Theater der Jungen Welt in Leipzig, the Deutsch-Sorbisches Volkstheater in Bautzen, and the Teatr Lesi in Lviv. His last three albums were created in collaboration with the Ukrainian writer and musician Serhiy Zhadan His book »Ein Aquarium voller Schlüssel. Charkiw und die Fotos meines Vaters« [tr.: An Aquarium Full of Keys. Kharkiv and My Father’s Photographs], a multifaceted collection of snapshots and short stories from his hometown, will be published by Edition Frölich in September of 2025. Gurzhy has lived in Berlin since 1995.

Last Update: 2025

Richard Wagner und die Klezmerband
Auf der Suche nach dem neuen, jüdischen Sound in Deutschland
Ariella Verlag
Berlin, 2022

Ein Aquarium voller Schlüssel
Charkiw und die Fotos meines Vaters
Edition Frölich
Berlin, 2025