"Folk music is not nostalgia. It is not a frozen tradition that only needs to be preserved. It is movement, change, expression - a mirror of society." Derya Yıldırım stands for exactly this attitude: For a music that tells stories that is passed on, refelt and redefined with every voice that sings it.

As a singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Yıldırım has established herself as one of the most important voices of the contemporary Anatolian music scene. Growing up in a family where music was part of everyday life, she learned instruments such as piano, guitar, ud, saxophone and bağlama in her childhood. She did not have her first experiences with the Bağlama on stage, but in the midst of family house music - with songs that have been carried on for generations. But her musical journey led her far beyond the private: She studied from 2013 to 2016 at the University of Music and Theater Hamburg and completed her studies in Bağlama with Taner Akyol at the University of the Arts Berlin in 2020. Since 2024 she has been passing on her knowledge as a lecturer at the Pop Academy Baden-Württemberg.

With her international band Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, she has created a unique combination of Anatolian folk music with psychedelic, jazz and funk influences. The band was celebrated as a "new German-Anatolian psycho-pop sensation" and released several albums on their own. Their fourth album Yarın Yoksa (German: Wenn es kein Morgen gibt) was released in March 2025 by the renowned New York label Big Crown Records. Produced by Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) at Diamond Mine Studios in Queens, New York, the album combines mostly own compositions with three newly interpreted traditional songs - a mixture that reflects Yıldırım's artistic vision: folk music as a mirror of society and a driving force of musical development. The album release show in March 2025 took place in the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, together with the Ensemble Resonanz.

But even as a solo artist, Yıldırım goes her own way. In her solo concerts she returns to the essence: voice and Bağlama. She does not reinterpret folk songs, but lets them live on - in a room without genre boundaries. Their goal is to establish the Bağlama as a full-fledged concert instrument, beyond folkloric niches. "The Bağlama belongs on the big concert stages, not as an exotic instrument, but as a natural part of the local musical landscape," she says. Her music tells of longing and resistance, of migration and identity - of stories that must not be lost.

Yıldırım has been working with the Ensemble Resonanz since 2015. Her project Derya's Songbook, which began in 2019 with premieres at the Elbphilharmonie, brought traditional Anatolian music into new contexts and linked it with contemporary compositions. She is also active in the field of contemporary music and music theater: In autumn 2024, she worked with the renowned ERMA Ensemble in Cologne. From January to April 2024 she was also on stage as a musician and performer in the production Haydar tanzt at the Neuköllner Oper. Due to the high demand, the piece will be performed again in March and April 2025.

Another field in which Yıldırım increasingly unfolds is film music. After initial experiences with the composition of individual scenes, for example for Der Russe, der Birken liebt (2022) by Pola Beck, she took over the complete musical design of a film for the first time in 2024. She composed, produced and recorded the entire soundtrack for the documentary Die Möllner Briefe by Martina Priessner, which celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale in February 2025. She was also seen as a musician and protagonist in the highly acclaimed music documentary Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm – Liebe, D-Mark and Death of Cem Kaya.

In addition to her musical projects, Yıldırım is committed to the promotion of Anatolian music and is actively committed to young musicians. Since 2024, she has been a regular jury member at the Federal Youth Competition Jugend musiziert in the subject of Bağlama. With her band she also recorded an exclusive mix for the London cult radio NTS.

For Yıldırım, the Bağlama is "like a good companion" and the music "a mediation instrument that drives them forward". Her musical journey is a continuous dialogue between past, present and future – sometimes delicate and melancholic, sometimes powerful and captivating. It brings the rich traditional music of Anatolia into ever new contexts and on ever larger stages, without losing sight of the roots.