Niki Zohdi

Niki Zohdi is a Blackburn-born composer, tenor and researcher. He recently completed a practice PhD in composition at the University of Leeds supervised by Mic Spencer and Martin Iddon where he explored concepts of distance, combination, fusion and fission in his music, as well as his relationship to early Renaissance music. His music looks at the multiple dimensions of distortion and obscuration in the context of pre-existent material. He also writes about how composers in the 20th and 21st century have re-contextualised and adapted techniques and materials from the early Renaissance into their works. 

 Niki completed both an undergraduate degree in music and a master’s degree in composition at Goldsmiths under the tutelage of Roger Redgate and has also received tuition in composition from Chaya Czernowin and Pierluigi Billone. His music has been performed, workshopped and recorded in the UK and Europe by the Ligeti String Quartet, Ensemble Achrome, Ensemble Pro Victoria and Inštitut .abeceda, and solo performers such as Carlos Cordeiro, Mauricio Galeano and Rolf Hind amongst others. Niki recently received the premiere of his trio, Memphis Facula, by the Marsyas Trio and is currently working on a piece for the Italian ensemble Icarus vs. Muzak for a performance in Reggio Emilia in Spring 2025. 

 In addition to being a composer, Niki is a tenor both as a soloist and in choirs. He sings with the ensembles, Borealis and Luminatus and regularly singing in the back row of the choir at Sheffield Cathedral. He has previously been a choral scholar at Blackburn Cathedral and has sung with several church choirs in London. As a soloist, Niki has premiered music by living composers and performed in venues such as St John’s Smith Square and St Martin in the Fields.  

Publications

Journal article

Zohdi, Niki. “Using pre-existing Material in ‘Complex’ Music”. WROCaH Journal 7 (2022): 107–117.

Reviews

Zohdi, Niki. “hcmf//2023, Huddersfield, UK”. Tempo 78, no. 308 (2024): 85–87.  

Interviews (as interviewee)

Zohdi, Niki & Antonella Bini. “Il compositore N. Zohdi presenta il suo brano "Katolophyromai" eseguito da ACHROME ensemble”. YouTube Video (2023).

Zohdi, Niki & Neža Zupanc. “[synopsis] XV. – Niki Zohdi”. YouTube video (2024).  

Interviews (as interviewer) 

Zohdi, Niki & Jonathan Woolgar. “Interview with the 2021 Tippett Medallist”. RMA. 25 April, 2023.

Zohdi, Niki & John Casken. “Interview with the 2020 Tippett Medallist”. RMA. 15 June, 2023. 

Conferences and presentations

“Distance: Distortion & Re-contextualisation”. Lecture at Inštitut .abeceda (Bled, 2024)

Teaching

Music composition; Early Music; Music Theory; Music Performance 

Professional memberships

Ordinary Member of the Royal Musical Association Student Committee