Background

Wherever you travel, you will find music. It may sound very different from the music you are accustomed to hearing, but you will recognize it instantly as music. In Kurdistan, we find a unique culture of music featuring such instruments as the tanbur (a fretted string instrument), the qernête (a double-reed wind instrument), and the s¸ims¸al ( a flutelike instrument). Although most of you may never have heard of these instruments and may never have heard Kurdish music before, you would instantly recognize them as musical instruments, and you might even like Kurdish music.

Go to the next tab to listen to a Kurdish music example and watch these intruments in action.

Kurdish Music