Derya Yıldırım is an internationally recognized musician and a leading figure in contemporary Anatolian-inspired music. With her voice and bağlama, she brings traditional Anatolian folk music into new, innovative forms and performs worldwide.

She studied at the University of Music and Theatre Hamburg (2013–2016) and later completed her bağlama degree with Taner Akyol at the Berlin University of the Arts (2020). Since 2024 she has been teaching bağlama at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg.

With her internationally based group "Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek", she has released several albums that combine Anatolian folk songs with elements of psychedelia, jazz and soul. Their third album "Yarın Yoksa" ("If There Is No Tomorrow"), produced by Leon Michels (El Michels Affair), was released on Big Crown Records in 2025 and celebrated with a concert at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall with Ensemble Resonanz as feature guest.

As a soloist, Yıldırım focuses even more closely on the bağlama, exploring its expressive and technical range and presenting Anatolian folk music in concert spaces where it has rarely been heard before. Her commitment to establishing the bağlama within broader artistic contexts is also reflected in her educational and curatorial work. Since 2025, she has been part of the jury for Jugend musiziert – Germany's leading nationwide competition for young musicians – where she oversees the newly introduced bağlama category. She has also served on the jury of Hamburg's Krach + Getöse music award.

She collaborates regularly with ensembles and on interdisciplinary projects. Since 2014 she has worked with Ensemble Resonanz, developing new compositions for strings and bağlama, including her project "Derya's Songbook" (Elbphilharmonie, 2019). She has also collaborated with Cologne's ERMA Ensemble and performed as musician and performer in the Neuköllner Oper Berlin production "Haydar tanzt" (2024/2025). Her work for film has become an increasingly important field. In 2024 she composed, produced, and performed the complete score for Martina Priessner's documentary "Die Möllner Briefe", which premiered at the Berlinale in February 2025 and was released in German cinemas in September 2025. Earlier she contributed to Pola Beck's "Der Russe, der Birken liebt" (2022) and appeared as musician and protagonist in Cem Kaya's award-winning documentary "Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm – Love, D-Mark and Death".Beyond stage and film, Yıldırım has also created works in sound art and radio drama. Her 7-channel installation "sesin melodim, seslerin yankım benim" (Hamburg, 2023) explored sonic memories between Hamburg (De) and Sivas (TR). She also composed the music for the drama "Güldens Schwester" (Bayrischer Rundfunk 2020).

In addition, she engages with audiences through radio and curated mixes. She runs the program "bağlama_spezial.mp3" on Berlin's community station THF-Radio and produced an exclusive mix for London's NTS Radio.