Adnan Karim
The keeper of the classical Soranî song and maqam tradition.
- Region
- Başûr (Silêmanî)
Adnan Karim, from the Silêmanî region, is the leading living representative of classical Soranî song. His art stands in the lineage of the great twentieth-century masters: poetry-driven, maqam-based singing in which text, ornament and silence matter equally. Revered in Başûr and among connoisseurs across Kurdistan, he has also brought the classical repertoire to concert stages abroad, treating Kurdish art song with the seriousness elsewhere reserved for Persian or Arabic classical traditions.