Brahim Shexo
Music classical composer, arranger, piano improviser.

 

In 1981 Brahim Shexo (Kurdish: Brahîm Şêxo) was born in the city of Gunbade Kauus, which is located in northeastern Iran, to a family seeking refuge there. His maternal grandfather was a military captain under Qazî Mihemed during the proclamation of the Republic of Mahabad in 1946. After its suppression, his grandfather was exiled to Gunbade Kauus to be assimilated by the mainly Iranian inhabitants. In 1974 Brahim´s father Mihemed Şêxo a well-known Kurdish musician and Kurdish Syrian took part in the Kurdish fight for independence and joined the Kurdish resistance force of Mele Mistefa Barzani. After its counterinsurgency, Kurds were seeking refuge all over the world. His father fled to Iran. There, he again pursued his musical career and gave music lessons.

 

In 1983 the Syrian authorities pardoned his father and allowed him to move back to his hometown Qamişlo (Qamishli) which is located in northeastern Syria. Nevertheless, he was under constant surveillance by authorities and had hard times to live his life as he used to. He owned a little shop which was closed later; they forbid his music and tortured him on regular bases.

 

Brahim was eight years old when his father passed away. His uncle Beha Şêxo also a renowned musician took care of his brother´s family. He saw that the kids had musical talent and wanted them to follow their father´s footsteps.

In the beginning Brahim was really interested in painting and calligraphy and wanted to pursue it professionally. Nevertheless, he started to play the Bouzouki which they had at home and was way to big for him. When his uncle saw him playing it he bought him one for his size. He loved playing parts of Ensemble Duhok under the direction of Dilshad Said (Tîpa Duhokê). His Bouzouki broke shortly after he got it. So Brahim turned to a small mono Keyboard, which they also had at home. It could not play more than two octaves and not play more than one tone at the same time.

 

Brahim never took any music classes or lessons. He completely taught himself autodidactically. When he was 12 years old, he could perfectly play the Bouzouki, which was also the point where he had the desire to learn more about the world of music, get challenged, learn to play more instruments and play with other people. But the circumstances they lived in did not allow him to do so which made him going back to painting and calligraphy.

 

Almost every evening a lot of family friends and musicians gathered at their house to visit his uncle, who in turn introduced Brahim to all of them and made him play the Bouzouki for them. His uncle owned a record store where he soled music tapes. It was at the time Brahim was around 14 years old when he found some tapes in his uncles store which opened the door to western Music for him and he began to love its harmony.

During puberty, Brahim accompanied his uncle who also gave concerts and played the Keyboard at weddings. On one side he helped his uncle out financially, so that he did not have to hire a Keyboard player, on the other side his uncle was happy about Brahim being more socially active. Brahim loved it to get in touch with new people and also loved listening to his uncle playing old Kurdish folk songs for the people and thus contributed him to carry on the Kurdish culture.

 

During the time of graduating the high school, Brahim stopped playing the Bouzouki and rather enjoyed playing the Keyboard because it was more harmonic for him. He was constantly buying and ordering tapes from all over to get a deeper understanding in the world of music. At that point of time, he had the desire to start playing the Violin.

 

Shortly after a musical institute was found in Qamishli lead by Dr. Mihemed Ezîz Zaza, Brahim was really happy about a place opening up to professionally learn more about music. He signed up for music classes right away, without knowing if he could afford it and was eager to learn how to play the Violin. At the same time Brahim also arranged music for many artists in a sound studio. Unfortunately, the institute was closed after a short period of time and Dr. Mihemed Ezîz Zaza moved to Southern Kurdistan (Kurdistan Regional Government of Northern Iraq). After the closing of the institute, Brahim decided to move out of Qamishli and immigrate to Germany.

So he did and a year later his asylum request was granted. He started to study and learn the German language but never stopped playing music during that time. He was constantly seeking contact to German musicians for them to make music together.

 

In the year of 2006 till 2009 Brahim gave music lessons in the city of Kiel northern Germany. Together with his students, he found an ensemble and started to perform with it. His teaching method followed the method of Suzuki, which says that “before you learn musical notes you have to know how to make music, since people start speaking before they learn how to write”. During this time, the Chamber Orchestra of Kiel was found and he started to play the first Violin in the orchestra. Nevertheless, he never was satisfied because he rather wanted to create music himself instead just playing given notes with a single instrument.

 

In 2006 and 2007, he went through several eye surgeries because he was suffering from extreme bad sight since his childhood. He always had to rely on his hearing and could never read the music notes from far away, so he memorized them by heart. After his surgeries, he finally started to see clear which was the point in his life where he finally decided to professionally study music and musical science. Up to this moment, he had played and taught music without having an academic music career.

 

In 2008/09 he started to visit Musical Science lectures at Kiel University as a guest student for a year. In 2009/10 he temporarily started studying as Contact student Muscial Theory at the University of Music Detmold (Hochschule für Musik- Detmold).

 

In 2009 he published a piano musical notation book for kids.

 

In 2011 he started his studies at the Institute of Music at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück. His major is composition and his minor is Piano under the direction of Peter Witte.

 

In 2014 Brahim released his first CD (Dilopên Sîyekê/ Shadow of Drops). The CD contains different styles: Minimal, free tonal music; different lineups and solos. It is available through JPC.de.

 

At the same time, he works on different arrangements for numerous songs for different lineups. Also he writes and works on translating different articles issuing musical psychology. During this time, he never stopped giving private piano lessons.

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2015 doctoral D.M.A about him with the titel "Bringing Kurdish Music To The West", Kansas Uni -USA.

Since 2016 working in Theater Bielefeld as theater musician.  
 

2017 release the second album "Novelle".

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Brahim does not compose by following a system. He rather goes by his feelings and senses, constantly being inspired by every day life. His compositions are personal and characteristic through and through. It is said that they have their own metaphoric language and are accompanied by his past and his homeland.