Yuriy Gurzhy

Born 1975 in Kharkiv, Ukraine and living in Berlin since 1995, Yuriy Gurzhy is the founder of RotFront, Shtetl Superstars, The Disorientalists and Kaminer & Die
Antikörpers.

Yuriy released twelve compilations on different european record labels, including the bestselling Russendisko Hits (2003) , Shtetl Superstars - Funky jewish sounds from around the world (2006) and Borsh Division - Future Sound Of Ukraine (2016). As part of the Emigrantski Raggamuffin Kollektiv RotFront, he has recorded three albums and toured extensively worldwide.

Gurzhy‘s first theater production, Who Was Essad Bey?, explored in 18 songs the life story of the largely forgotten German author of Jewish Azeri origin. This theatrical endeavor was performed at Studio Я (GORKI Theater, Berlin) together with Daniel Kahn and Marina Frenk and later recorded as The Disorientalists for an album release in early 2017 on Oriente
Records.

In the fall of 2020, Gurzhy embarked on a journey to Donbass to collaborate with local teenagers as a part of the Misto To Go projet, resulting in the unique pop album New Donbass Symphony, produced entirely in the war-torn region.

Teaming up with esteemed Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan in 2021, Gurzhy recorded Fokstroty, an album based on the works of Ukrainian poets from the 1920s.

His literary debut came in January 2022 with the publication of Richard Wagner & The Klezmer Band: Searching For The New Jewish Sound In Germany. Since February 2022, he has been contributing a war diary to the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.

Gurzhy’s next album, “Ukrainian Songs Of Love And Hate”, is a collaboration with three Ukrainian authors, Lyuba Yakimchuk, Irena Karpa and Grigory Semenchuk, reflecting on the first months of russia’s war in Ukraine. It was released in the fall of 2022.

In his latest release from the fall of 2023, a reggae album SkovoroDance, Yuriy Gurzhy once again teams up with Serhiy Zhadan for an inventive project that rejuvenates the timeless Garden of Divine Songs, originally written by Hryhoriy Skovoroda in 1785.