Shirish Korde’s most frequently performed and critically acclaimed works include: Tenderness of Cranes,for solo flute, influenced by Japanese shakuhachi techniques; Time Grids, for amplified guitar and tape; Constellations, for saxophone quartet; and Drowned Woman of the Sky, a song cycle based on poems by Pablo Neruda, Svara Yantra (violin concerto), and the Songs of Ecstasy, based on spiritual texts from world literature. Korde has composed five large-scale music-theatre works: Chitra, Rasa, Bhima’s Journey, The Separate Prison, and The Conquistadors. His works exhibit influences of Asian dramatic and musical forms, especially Balinese Gamelan and shadow puppetry, Vedic chant, Tuva music from Central Asia, North Indian Tala, and shakuhachi music. Jazz elements and computer voice synthesis techniques are also incorporated into his music-theatre works. He was described by the Computer Music Journal as one of the few “contemporary composers who have been deeply touched by music of non-Western cultures, jazz, and computer technology and who has created a powerful and communicative compositional language.”

His works have been performed by orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, The New Zealand Symphony, Boston Philharmonic and the National Polish Radio Orchestra; Ensembles such as The Boston Musica Viva, Da Capo Chamber Players, The Ensemble Modern, The Phrominx Ensemble; The Parker, Stadler, and Brooklyn Rider String Quartets, and numerous soloists; conductors, including Reuben Silva, Ben Zander and Ludovic Morlot; sopranos Zorana Sadiq and Elizabeth Keusch; flutists Claire Marchand, Jennifer Gunn and Pat Spencer, the Balinese Artist Desak Suarti Lakshmi, as well as the Tabla Virtuosos Samir Chatterjee and Aditya Kalyanpur. His current comissions and collaborations include a concerto for guitarist Simon Thacker and a violin concerto for Indian violin master L. Subramaniam.

His works have been performed in Europe, Asia and throughout the United States. He has been the recipient of several grants and awards including; The National Endowment for the Arts, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, The New England Foundation for the Arts, The Fromm Foundation, The Boston Celebrity Series, and The Jebediah Foundation.

Korde was born in Uganda to Indian parents. He came to the United States, where he studied jazz and composition at the Berklee College of Music, analysis and composition at the New England Conservatory, and ethnomusicology at Brown University. He is the Chair of the Music Department at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) and has previously been on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music, the New England Conservatory, and Brown University.