Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is an Iranian/Canadian composer based in Vancouver, Canada.

Remember this name: Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi. Although she’s only a second-year composition student at SFU, the Iranian-born musician is poised to make a significant impact on the Canadian and international new-music scene—if she can continue writing pieces as distinctive and engaging as Displacement II.
The Georgia Straight

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi (b. 1997 Tehran, Iran) is a California/Vancouver-based composer and performer. She writes for hybrid instrumental/electronic ensembles, creates electroacoustic and audiovisual works, and performs electronic music. Kimia explores the unfamiliar familiar while constantly being driven by the concepts of motion, interaction, and growth in both human life and in the sonic world. Being a cross-disciplinary artist, she has actively collaborated on projects evolving around dance, film, and theatre.

Kimia’s work has been showcased by organizations such as Iranian Female Composer Association, Music on Main, Western Front, Vancouver New Music, and Media Arts Committee. She has been featured in The New York Times, Georgia Straight, MusicWorks Magazine, Vancouver Sun, and Sequenza 21. Her work has been performed at festivals around the world including Ars Electronica Festival, Festival Ecos Urbanos, Tehran Contemporary Sounds, AudioVisual Frontiers Virtual Exhibition, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Yarn/Wire Institute, Ensemble Evolution, New Music on the Point, wasteLAnd Summer Academy, EQ: Evolution of the String Quartet, Modulus Festival, and SALT New Music Festival.

She holds a BFA in Music Composition from Simon Fraser University’s Interdisciplinary School for the Contemporary Arts, having studied with Sabrina Schroeder and Mauricio Pauly. Kimia is currently pursuing The Doctor of Musical Artsprogram in Composition at Stanford University.

This page was last updated in February 2022.