Yuriy Gurzhy was born in 1975 in Kharkiv and has lived in Berlin since 1995. As a musician, composer, DJ, and author, Gurzhy has initiated and shaped numerous projects, including RotFront, Shtetl Superstars, The Disorientalists, and Kaminer & Die Antikörpers. In addition, as a curator, he has released over a dozen compilations that have received international acclaim on renowned European labels. In 2022, his literary debut, Richard Wagner & the Klezmer Band. In Search of the New Jewish Sound in Germany, was published.
From February 2022 to April 2024, he wrote a column for the Tagesspiegel, documenting the Russian aggression against Ukraine from a personal perspective. Yuriy Gurzhy regularly composes music for theater productions, including for the National Theater in Mannheim, the Munich Chamber Theater, and the Lesya Theater in Lviv. His last four albums were created in collaboration with Ukrainian writer and musician Serhiy Zhadan.