Farhad Darya was born on September 22, 1962 in Gozargaah, Kabul. Two decades later, he becomes one of the prominent voices and a revolutionary brain behind the contemporary music of Afghanistan.

From an old-well known Afghan family, Farhad's grandfather "Shir Mohammad Khan Afghan" - known as "Nashir" (author) - is celebrated today as the "Father of Modernized Kunduz". He contributed enormously in the building of agriculture and industrial technology in the Northern Afghanistan.

Farhad continues to live in Kunduz, a love inspiring and an exhilarating province in the North, for the first 17 years of his life. He was connected to his surrounding and nature from childhood, which also results to inspire his intellect and works. "Nayestan" (Reed-Bed) is the first ever-musical band that Darya founds while attending "Shir Khan" High School in Kunduz. Later, after graduating "Habibia" High School in Kabul, he attends the Polytechnic Institute from 1979 to 1982.

In the beginning of Soviet invasion, 1979, he moves with his family to Kabul where he stays until September 1990.

In 1980 Farhad appears for the first time on the sole TV station in the country just a year after the Soviet invasion. He can't stand the oppression against his people, and stands up to voice their pain. Farhad starts a professional life, which turns out to suffer as much as his compatriots have in the past two decades.

While also studying in Kabul University, Farhad forms "Goroh-e-Baran" (Rain Band), his first professional band, by grouping with 3 other university students, and starts rocking the routine in music and Afghan tunes (1983). The traditional Afghan society can hardly see the twenty-year-old Darya established enough as a classical singer, songwriter, composer, lyricist, band founder, and above all a trendsetter. Therefore, Darya decides to use the pseudo name "Abr" (Cloud) when writing and producing music for other artists.

From 1983 to 1987, Darya attends Faculty of Literature in University of Kabul.
In 1988 Farhad becomes an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Fine Art, University of Kabul, and teaches Classical Music for a year.

In fall 1990 he leaves Kabul for Prague, Czech Republic, and then for Hamburg, Germany. Farhad falls in love in Paris with his future wife, Sultana Emam, an Afghan born student of University of Sorbonne, and gets married in 1993.
In November 1995 Darya moves to United States, and continues to reside in the state of Virginia.

He becomes father to his son, Hejran Darya in 1996.

Between the years of 1980 and 1990, Darya launches more than 15 albums in Afghanistan; and between 1990 and 2001, he pursues another 13 albums while in exile. He has performed in sold-out concerts in United States, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Italy, Turkey  with an aim to keep Afghan culture, music, and the light of hope alive amidst the diaspora.

He has, times and again, received the title of "Best Singer of the Year", both at home and abroad, and most recently in summer 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Despite inventing a new entity in the regional music, Darya learns from great Afghan music legends such as Ustad Qasim, Ustad Sarahang, Ustad Awalmeer, Ahmad Zahir, and other name worthy personalities, who inspire him at the first place.

Farhad Darya is a song writer, composer, singer, and music searcher who has written and sung a remarkable array of songs in most major Afghan and regional languages such as Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, Hazaragi, and Urdu. He wants to draw a rainbow of peace and harmony from the existing disparities for all these mosaics of people in his land.

For the last two decades, he has tried to mend the war-torn and disconnected Afghan nation towards unity, and is known for being one of the most daring and stringent musicians in the Afghan Resistance. He has sought to redefine an isolated people to the rest of the world. In response to the current developments in Afghanistan, he has planned a worldwide benefit tour, titled "I am Cold!" to help the much suffered and needy Afghan Children.



Source: www.Daryasworld.com


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The End. Feb 28 2004