WQadir Abdullahzada born in village of Kulice in northwestern Iran, is one of the best known Kurdish traditional musicians. He played shimshal/ney, a Kurdish traditional music instrument. He started to play shimshal (Ney) as a young and homeless man aiming to earn his daily bread. He played on the streets for an unknown number of years until he was an old man and was filmed by a journalist which was published as a documentary. He was known for the long tones he could create and to play for hours without holding breaks.
WZhiar Ali is a Kurdish LGBT rights activist, animal rights activist, singer-songwriter, and journalist based in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, who is known for his contributions to LGBT rights in Iraqi Kurdistan. Ali, the former media and communications officer at Rasan, founded Yeksani: an initiative focused on advocating for LGBT rights in the Kurdistan Region. He had also co-founded the first pro-vegan animal rights organization Kurdistan Vegans. He has freelanced for news organizations, focusing on music journalism and political and social issues.
WSerhat Baran is a Kurdish ethno-rock musician.
WHozan Diyar knows as Diyar Dersim is a Kurdish singer. During 2015 Turkey general elections, he supports HDP, pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, He sings with the party cochairman Selahattin Demirtaş as a part of campaigning the election.
WDilo Doxan is a Kurdish musician from Syria.
WSaeed Farajpouri, was born on February 20, 1961 in Sanadaj, Iran. He is a composer, performer and an instructor of a classical Iranian instrument called Kamancheh or Spike Fiddle.
WCiwan Haco is a Kurdish singer. He was born in Tirbespî near Qamişlo in Syria. His grandfather was originally from Mardin, Turkey. After finishing high school, he left for Germany in order to continue his studies. He studied musicology at the Ruhr University Bochum. He is now residing in Sweden.
WTara Jaff is an Iraqi Kurdish musician who has been exposed to many ancient influences. Over the years, Jaff experimented with different string instruments, but it was her fascination with the ancient harps of Sumeria, Assyria, Hurrians and Elam, dating as far back as 3000 BC that led her to the contemporary Celtic harp. She has embraced this instrument and introduced to modern Kurdish music, particularly in modern folk songs. Having developed her own innovative style to adapt to the various musical rhythms and modes of the region, Jaff brings a contemporary expression to an ancient form of music and song.
WShahriyar Jamshidi is a Kurdish-Iranian Canadian Kamancheh player and composer. His focus is mainly on Kurdish and Iranian music.
WKayhan Kalhor is an Iranian kamancheh and setar player and vocalist from Iran, composer and master of classical Iranian traditional music.
WArdeshir Kamkar is a Kurdish musician from Iran.
WAdnan Karim is a prominent Kurdish singer, known for his song adaptations of classical Kurdish poems. He is also a painter.
WMuhammad Mamle was a Kurdish musician and singer. He renewed hundreds of Kurdish folkloric songs.
WMojtaba Mirzadeh was a renowned Kurdish Iranian Violin, Kamancheh, and Setar player who was influential in Persian classical music. He played, composed and arrangement music for many famous kurdish and Iranian singers such as Hasan Zirak, Mazhar Khaleqi, Hayedeh, Moein, Nader Golchin, Shahram Nazeri, Shahab Jezayeri, Googoosh, Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, Dariush Eghbali, Homeyra, Golpa, Alireza Eftekhari and Reza Saqaee. He was known by the music community as "the genius". Iranian classical and pop composer, Sadeq Nojooki says that Mirzadeh was the greatest musician that he ever saw in his life. He was also the composer for many films.
WHafez Nazeri is a Kurdish Iranian singer and composer. He is the son of Kurdish Iranian musician Shahram Nazeri.
WShahram Nazeri is a contemporary Iranian tenor of Kurdish origin from Kermanshah, Iran, who sings Iranian traditional music. He has been accompanied by some of the masters of Iranian traditional music such as Jalil Shahnaz, Hossein Alizadeh, Jalal Zolfonoun, Parviz Meshkatian and Faramarz Payvar. He has also worked with his son Hafez, a composer.
WŞivan Perwer is a Kurdish poet, writer, musical teacher, singer, and performer on the Tembûr. Perwer fled Turkey in 1976 due to the Kurdish nationalism and political tones of his music and lived for 37 years in continuous exile until his return to Diyarbakir on November 16, 2013. He still lives in exile to this day. Perwer also holds several honorary doctorates in music.
WManoochehr Sadeghi is a Persian-American naturalized citizen, born in Tehran, Iran. He is considered a Grandmaster or Ostad of the santur, a Persian hammered dulcimer. He has been lecturing, teaching, recording and performing Persian classical music on the santur professionally for over 50 years. In 2002, Sadeghi received the Durfee Foundation Master Musician Award and he is a recipient of a 2003 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
WSeyed Ali Jaberi is an Iranian multi-instrumentalist Persian traditional musician who lives in England. He is a maestro of the tanbur. He has released four albums, two of which received 4-star reviews in Songlines; Psalms of Loneliness and All Because of Love.
WFerhat Tunç Yoslun is a Turkish singer of Kurdish descent.
WHassan Zirek 29 November 1921 – 26 June 1972 Bukan) was a celebrated Iranian Kurdish songwriter-singer from Bukan, known for his recordings of classical Kurdish folk songs. He was famous for his classical and sensual lyrics, and it is believed that he composed over thousand songs in his lifetime.