about Courage (tl;dr version)
I’m a composer and visual artist from Indiana.
I mostly write for singers and electronics.
I’m a countertenor.
I sing early and new music.
I sing and perform movement in my works.
I go to Indiana University.
I major in composition and
historical performance (voice).
about Courage (full bio)
Courage Barda (b. 2003) is a composer, media artist, and countertenor known primarily for his choral and vocal music, as well as his interdisciplinary works, which combine music with movement, theater, text, and video. At the center of his artistic practice is playfulness, inviting audiences to experience humor, grief, and absurdity in his music. Another central thread in his work is his return to dance after a disabling neurological event. Restricted by his physical impairment, he has developed a robust, adaptive movement vocabulary which he experiments with in intimate and vulnerable performance pieces. Ensembles that have performed his work include the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, the Phoenix Boys Choir, The Capital Hearings, the International Brazilian Opera Company, Hub New Music, the Choral Arts Initiative, and NOTUS, Indiana University’s contemporary vocal ensemble.
In addition to his own compositions, Barda performs an eclectic repertoire as a countertenor specializing in the performance of both early music and new music, having performed in solo and chamber settings the music of J.S. Bach, Heinrich Schütz, José Marin, Guillaume de Machaut, G.F. Handel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and John Dowland, as well as the music of Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Julián Carillo, and Unsuk Chin.
He is pursuing bachelor’s degrees in composition and historical voice performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He presently studies composition with Gabriel Jenks and Aaron Travers, and voice with Thomas Cooley. He previously studied composition with Don Freund and David Dzubay, and voice with Judith Malafronte and Steven Rickards.
my why (artist statement)
I am a composer whose work is situated within the expanded multimedia field. My work centers on my disabled body. I call attention to my limp by accentuating its unique rhythm and shape, and by positioning it in disabling environments. In my movement piece I want to run again (2025), I perform an aerobic test similar to ones found in school gym classes, but alone.
I am guided by a principle of radical honesty. I present my own personal experiences in my work without alteration. The rawness of my work creates discomfort at times, but in a way I see as productive. I invite people to be uncomfortable in my art, to reflect on their own relationship with the systems of power I examine in my work. In my video work QUICK CHXNGE (2025) I repeatedly apply face paint and change into a mixture of men’s and women’s clothes. My physical state and appearance become progressively deteriorated, an articulation of the invisible, diffuse power Michael Foucault introduced. That work and others are influenced by Julia Kristeva’s writings on abjection. I experiment with nakedness and extended vocal techniques and combine human and non-human qualities as part of my research into abjection. By immersing audiences in indeterminate spaces, they become removed from socialized modes of thought and made to confront new conditions.
My training in musical composition has fostered a fascination with intermedia counterpoint. I approach the composition of movement and video as if they were individual musical voices, notating and manipulating their entrances and punctuation alongside the music. By expanding concepts like musical counterpoint and videographic depth of field to include other mediums, I produce more complete and defined artistic works. Creating transdisciplinary works contributes to my mission of regaining autonomy in my own life, allowing me to decide the exact presentation of my body.