Niko Umar-Durr
Composer | Musician
bio.
Niko (b.1995) is a composer and violinist who has been active in the music/composition community in the San Francisco/Oakland area for 22 years. Living in the bay area has offered him many opportunities to learn and hone his skills as a composer.
Niko was a student at The Crowden School and during this time he became a student of composer Molly Axtmann. Soon after Niko joined the inaugural class of the John Adams Young Composers Program and eventually became a student of John Adams himself. Niko has had works performed by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble as well as various faculty and students associated with The Crowden School and Oakland School for the Arts from 2009-2013. Niko was also director of music at Harmonikos, a young composer/performer’s forum organized by fellow Crowden students from 2009-2013.
Niko has performed with Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) in Berkeley, CA, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS), in San Francisco, CA, Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra (BCSO) at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, Oakland Civic Orchestra (OCO), in Oakland CA, and the recently established International Pride Orchestra (IPO) in San Francisco, CA.
In 2021, Oakland Civic Orchestra announced Niko as Composer-in-Residence. Since then the community based orchestra has premiered several works including most recently “Zephyr in Gemini” and “Renegade”.
listen & watch.
the scoop.
The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Award Finalist (2010)
"...he [Niko] comes up with things that are just wonderful, [like his] understanding of orchestral color. How does he think of these things? How does he make them work? Because they really do work,” Martha Stoddard, Artistic Director/Principal Conductor of Oakland Civic Orchestra
“It is his orchestration that reveals his deep passion for the orchestra as an expressive vehicle. Most interesting is his use of a large percussion group. It makes me think of Andy Warhol’s prints of Campbell’s soup cans or, more aptly, the Marilyn Monroe diptych. A popular, ubiquitous object repeated with layered variation.” Christine Brandes, Associate Conductor Oakland Civic Orchestra
Honorable Mention in the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition (2011)
