Before they come to us, we visit them in their neighbourhoods: the musicians of our new series “Tracks – Music of the City at the Konzerthaus.” Before the third episode, we met with Derya Yıldırım in Neukölln at her favourite place: the singer and bağlama player, who comes from Hamburg and now lives in Berlin, invited us to a friend’s basement studio just around the corner from Maybachufer. Amid numerous turntables, plenty of equipment, and a grand piano, she tells us about her music and the concert she'll play with mandolinist Avi Avital and Ensemble Resonanz at the Konzerthaus on April 27.

“I grew up on the Veddel [an island in the Elbe River in Hamburg; Ed.] in a family that was very passionate about music. My father was my first inspiration. He has always played the bağlama, and I started playing it when I was still quite young. My first band was with him and my younger brothers, I think. I also received early music education and learned to play the piano—European classical music was also a very big part of my life. My father once told me that I could read sheet music and recognize notes before I learned the alphabet. After graduating from high school, I began studying classical piano for three or four years to become a teacher. When the University of the Arts established a bağlama programme, I decided to move to Berlin.”

“I think this studio is my favourite place in Berlin. I feel at home here, and it’s just been the setting for so many wonderful encounters, opportunities, and chances. I’ve been in the city for 10 years now, and it’s wonderful to have your community and friends all in one place. For example, I produced the music for the documentary “The Moelln Letters” here and recorded the women’s choirs with friends. I also pre-produced my band’s latest album entirely here.”

“I see myself as a small piece of a much larger puzzle in the process of establishing the bağlama and the music in which it is rooted. Improvisation is a major component of this Anatolian musical culture. But there are also written sources. It is about how you interpret a melody, how you interpret songs. And there are ornaments and melismas—or just that little something you add as an individual performer. That’s what sets the musician apart. 

But I don’t just play classical bağlama; I also try to play the melodies that have existed for centuries with a different energy, a different perspective. I see it as my mission to ensure that folk music doesn’t remain mere nostalgia, but serves as a mirror of society. I believe that I might be able to act as a kind of voice for my generation—or perhaps I already am: What does this music actually mean to us? What do these melodies and rhythms mean to us? For me, it’s not about catering to a genre, but about bringing the musical traditions I come from – whether traditional music played on the bağlama, classical European music, or other styles that have influenced me – into collaborations like the one with Ensemble Resonanz and finding my own voice there.”

“The first time I played with Avi Avital, it quickly became clear to both of us just how much the mandolin and the bağlama – two plucked instruments – have in common. And at the same time, we really enjoy feeling and hearing the differences between them. There are different musical worlds on stage that sometimes collide, creating something truly wonderful, and sometimes simply exist on their own, almost side by side. He and I have each prepared a few pieces; for some of Avi’s songs, I also play the melodies. But the most exciting part is what we do together, especially PHOENIX, the ”Concerto for Bağlama, Mandolin, String Orchestra and Percussion,” which was composed specifically for us by Taner Akyol.”