GIDI
Gidi Farhi is an Israeli-born string instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist whose work bridges jazz tradition and experimental exploration. With a deep-rooted passion for creating musical landscapes that are both harmonious and adventurous, Gidi's approach blends genres, cultures, and disciplines into compositions that are as evocative as they are boundary-defying.
His journey with music began at the age of 12, when he picked up the classical guitar, followed shortly by the bass. He went on to study double bass at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, laying a strong foundation in jazz performance. Drawn to the unfamiliar and the transformative, Gidi continued his musical education in Varanasi, India, where he studied the sitar and immersed himself in the textures of Indian classical music.
In 2006, Gidi relocated to Berlin, a city that continues to inspire his work with its openness to experimentation and cross-cultural collaboration. Over the years, he has been active in a wide variety of musical scenes—including folk, country, bluegrass, and oriental music—before shifting his focus toward free composition, improvisational work, and the integration of movement, poetry, and what he describes as the “inner dance” within music.
Gidi is a co-founder and core member of several ensembles:
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Genes - a live-composing trio whose debut album "Presents of Presence" was released in 2020
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Gidi & Mati - collaboration with the poet Mati Shemoelof
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Berliner Orient Ensemble - a group dedicated to blending Middle Eastern and Western traditions
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Minimal Utopia Orkestra - a project dedicated to world music of a variety of heritages
In 2022, Gidi released "Hey Yaldati", a collaborative album created with guitarist and composer Nishad Pandey.
In 2025, Gidi is working on a compilation of original songs, as well as several new collaborative works set to be announced soon.
He is also a founding member of Hochspannung Studios, a Berlin-based music production collective he co-established with Alexander Folonari and Nishad Pandey. Together, they support a growing community of artists exploring sound, storytelling, and sonic experimentation.
Through all his projects, Gidi remains committed to the power of music as a journey - an emotional, intuitive experience that invites listeners to travel not just through sound, but through the inner landscapes it reveals.