Today we present the winner of the contest for the poetic-visionary middle section:

Zeynep Yildirim

Zeynep Yildirim was born in Istanbul in 1981. She studied composition and music theory with Özen Veziroglu und Ulvi Cemal Erkin at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. After her studies in Istanbul, she completed her postgraduate studies with Walter Zimmermann in Berlin and became a master-class student of Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe 2012-2014.

Most of her works are for chamber ensembles, where she often uses elements derived from traditional turkish music.

Yildirim received commissions from Festivals e.g. ECLAT (Stuttgart) and Rainy Days (Luxembourg). Her works were performed by renowned artists e.g. musikFabrik, Ashot Sarkissjan (Arditti Quartet), Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble Garage and the Thin Edge New Music Collective (Canada). She has been rewarded several prizes and scholarships, the Schneider-Schott-Prize or scholarships from International Summer Courses Darmstadt as well as from the Aribert-Reimann-Foudation. In 2015, she was selected for a residence in the Künstlerhaus Edenkoben. Her works have been performed in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Japan and were broadcasted by several radio stations e.g. WDR, SWR, Deutschlandradio Kultur and ORF.

Zeynep Yildirim lives as a freelance artist in Heidelberg, Germany.