Derya Yıldırım

Derya Yıldırım — Biography

Derya Yıldırım is a Hamburg-born singer-songwriter, composer and music producer, a multi-instrumentalist closely associated with the bağlama. She sings in Turkish and draws on Anatolian folk music and pop. She performs with her band Grup Şimşek or as a soloist, and also works as a lecturer and jury member.

She grew up in Hamburg's Veddel district and at music school learned piano, guitar, oud, bağlama and saxophone, and she sang in a choir. From 2013 to 2016 she studied at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, and from 2016 she studied music at the Berlin University of the Arts. She was the only student in Germany with the bağlama as a principal instrument; her teacher was Taner Akyol. Early in her career she performed classical Anatolian music with her cousin Duygu Ağal.

With Grup Şimşek she released the album Kar Yağar in 2019. The press has described her as an artist keeping Anatolian folk music alive in Europe, and she has performed with the group on European stages.