Defne Şahin.

Singer and composer Defne Şahin is rapidly developing an international reputation as a versatile and creative performer. Her unique musical language, is largely influenced by her experiences living in different countries; born and raised by Turkish parents in Berlin, and spending time in New York, Istanbul and Barcelona. Her upcoming album Hope (fall 2023) includes settings of poetry by Emily Dickinson, together with her own lyrics. In a genre-bending musical setting Defne Şahin reflects on life and death, love and longing, fear and hope and the letting go of it all. Şahin’s debut album Yaşamak hailed as the “beginning of a successful career” (Jazzthetik), features evocative settings of poetry by the regime critic Nâzım Hikmet. Her second album Unravel was recorded with her New York based band and featured Guillermo Klein, who produced the album. She has performed at numerous jazz clubs and festivals throughout Europe, Laos, Israel, Turkey, South Africa and the United States and performed along the likes of Marike van Dijk, Shai Maestro, Jay Clayton and Anthony Braxton. Since 2016 Defne Şahin has spent several months as an artist in residence at the Kulturakademie Tarabya of the German Federal Foreign Office in Istanbul. She has received numerous awards and grants as a singer, bandleader and composer from the Deutscher Musikrat, the Initiative Musik, the Goethe Institut and the Berliner Senat. Currently Defne Şahin is living in Berlin, where she is teaching vocal jazz at the Universität der Künste and working as a jury member of the Berliner Senat.