about Courage (tl;dr version)
I compose, produce, sing, dance, write, and make film.
I'm passionate about disability advocacy in the arts.
I compose lots of choral music.
I recently graduated from Indiana University and am now a master's student at the University of Southern California.
about Courage (full bio)
Courage Barda (b. 2003) is a composer, tenor, and media artist. He explores the interactions between media by producing interdisciplinary theater works that blend sound, video, and dance. His work centers on digital culture, intimacy, and his personal identity. Following a severe neurological injury, he began processing his disability and incorporating his limp into his work. In addition to his interdisciplinary work, he has composed a diverse catalog of choral music recognized for its whimsy and sincerity. His choral works have been performed across the United States and Europe and often are settings of his own texts.
Recent awards include the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus Competition for Young Composers (“Under the city”), the C4 Commissioning Competition (“Mrs. B’s Third-Grade Class Imagines the Future”), the Capital Hearings’ Young Composers Competition (“Give orange me”), and the Indiana University Provost’s Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.
His music has been performed by Roots in the Sky, C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, the Columbia Choirs of Metropolitan Seattle, the Fourth Choir, 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.
He holds bachelor’s degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Composition and Historical Performance (Voice). There, he studied composition primarily with Gabriel Jenks and voice primarily with Thomas Cooley. He is currently a student at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he studies composition with Ted Hearne.
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.