About Kurdish music   page 1 of 8 Kurdish music was initiated by an Armenian priest, Vartapet Komitas in 1904. The first academic center for Kurdish music was founded in Yerevan, called The Malikian School of Music, which studied the old dengbêj. Kurdish academic, Cemîlê Celîl published two collections of popular Kurdish songs in 1964 and 1965. In Iraq, a center for study of Kurdish music was founded in 1958. An academic study of Kurdish music, dance and musical instruments in Hakkari was published by Dr. D. Christensen in 1963. The music of Kurdish Jews has also been studied in the 70s, and published by the Jewish Music Research Centre in Jerusalem.