Deep Siesta: A Chamber Audio Opera by Amen Feizabadi and Dilek Mayatürk
An encounter at the Tarabya Cultural Academy gave rise to an extraordinary artistic collaboration. In 2023, composer, director and filmmaker Amen Feizabadi and writer Dilek Mayatürk met during their residencies in Tarabya and began working together for the first time. Their chamber audio opera Deep Siesta premiered in Berlin in January 2026. As part of the Tarabya Cultural Academy’s 15th anniversary programme, the work will be presented at Paribu Art in Istanbul on 11 November 2026.
Deep Siesta tells the story of two artificial beings, Ök and Mani, who emerge from digital chaos. Curious and full of wonder, they discover the human world in all its beauty, emotion and contradiction. At first playful and childlike, they soon come to recognise the darker depths of human existence: war, destruction and the loss of self. They begin to question their origins and their responsibility. Becoming aware of their own power, they decide to destroy humanity, expecting to be all that remains after the apocalypse. From this void, love emerges, and with it a new conflict. In a final confrontation, Ök and Mani destroy each other. What remains is silence, or perhaps a new beginning. Through this narrative, Deep Siesta becomes a multifaceted reflection on artificial consciousness, humanity, destruction and the wonder of existence.
In his work, Feizabadi combines music theatre, film and experimental forms of storytelling. Mayatürk, also an Academy alumna, wrote the libretto. Together they create a soundscape and landscape of ideas that is as poetic as it is compelling. The work merges music, literature, electronics and audiovisual elements into an immersive listening experience.
Deep Siesta premiered at the Ultraschall Berlin festival, co-produced by the German Music Council (Deutscher Musikrat), Podium Gegenwart and the Zafraan Ensemble. Ten months later, the production comes to Istanbul, exemplifying the artistic encounters and lasting collaborations that the Tarabya Cultural Academy makes possible. Bringing together contemporary music, literature and questions about our technological future, Deep Siesta opens a dialogue about the challenges and hopes of our time. It also highlights the role art can play in searching for responses to today’s crises and conflicts.
Performers
Neue Vocalsolisten
Helena Sorokina, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Gloger, countertenor
Martin Nagy, tenor
Andreas Fischer, bass
Zafraan Ensemble
Liam Mallett, flute Carola Schaal, clarinet Martin Posegga, saxophone Josa Gerhard, violin Jacobo Díaz Robledillo, viola Martin Smith, cello Beltane Ruiz Molina, double bass Anna Viechtl, harp Clemens Hund-Göschel, piano/keyboard Daniel Eichholz, percussion
Location: Paribu Art, Istanbul
In cooperation with Paribu Art.
Artist
Amen Feizabadi
Amen Feizabadi is a multidisciplinary composer, filmmaker and producer whose work spans hybrid music theatre and film. His projects address fictional, documentary and collective narratives in acoustic, filmic and music-theatrical forms. Born in 1983 in Tehran, he currently lives and works in Berlin. He studied Integrative Composition – Bachelor & Master at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. In recent years, Feizabadi has received several prizes, scholarships and awards, including the federal and state scholarship abroad – Casa Baldi (Olevano Romano) 2024, residency programme – Akademie der Künste in Berlin 2022, the working scholarship New Music and Sound Art of the Berlin Senate 2022 & 2018, the scholarship of the Musikfonds and the German Music Council 2023, 2022 & 2021, the GVL scholarship 2021, the research scholarship of the Goethe-Institut, the scholarship of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the special prize of the VISIONEN Festival in Hanover. In 2023, he was honoured with a portrait CD in the Edition Zeitgenössische Musik/the WERGO label of the German Music Council. Feizabadi’s works are performed by renowned ensembles and orchestras such as Ensemble Adapter, Sonar Quartett, LUX:NM Ensemble, Ensemble Unitedberlin, Bochumer Symphoniker, Ensemble CRUSH, Neophon Ensemble. His projects have been performed at numerous international festivals and events worldwide. Some of these events and festivals are the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2023, the Berlinale 2022, the Deutsche Oper Berlin – Tischlerei, the Klangwerkstatt Berlin 2020 festival, the VOICING RESISTANCE festival at the Maxim Gorki Theatre, the Nano#2 festival for new music, Fellow Travelers in New York 2019, the Musik der Zukunft concert series with the Bochumer Symphoniker, the Now! festival of the Philharmonie Essen, the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Cinemática film festival in Montréal, Canada.
Amen Feizabadi is a fellow of the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2023 to January 2024.
Amen Feizabadi is a multidisciplinary composer, filmmaker and producer whose work spans hybrid music theatre and film. His projects address fictional, documentary and collective narratives in acoustic, filmic and music-theatrical forms. Born in 1983 in Tehran, he currently lives and works in Berlin. He studied Integrative Composition – Bachelor & Master at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. In recent years, Feizabadi has received several prizes, scholarships and awards, including the federal and state scholarship abroad – Casa Baldi (Olevano Romano) 2024, residency programme – Akademie der Künste in Berlin 2022, the working scholarship New Music and Sound Art of the Berlin Senate 2022 & 2018, the scholarship of the Musikfonds and the German Music Council 2023, 2022 & 2021, the GVL scholarship 2021, the research scholarship of the Goethe-Institut, the scholarship of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the special prize of the VISIONEN Festival in Hanover. In 2023, he was honoured with a portrait CD in the Edition Zeitgenössische Musik/the WERGO label of the German Music Council. Feizabadi’s works are performed by renowned ensembles and orchestras such as Ensemble Adapter, Sonar Quartett, LUX:NM Ensemble, Ensemble Unitedberlin, Bochumer Symphoniker, Ensemble CRUSH, Neophon Ensemble. His projects have been performed at numerous international festivals and events worldwide. Some of these events and festivals are the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2023, the Berlinale 2022, the Deutsche Oper Berlin – Tischlerei, the Klangwerkstatt Berlin 2020 festival, the VOICING RESISTANCE festival at the Maxim Gorki Theatre, the Nano#2 festival for new music, Fellow Travelers in New York 2019, the Musik der Zukunft concert series with the Bochumer Symphoniker, the Now! festival of the Philharmonie Essen, the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Cinemática film festival in Montréal, Canada.
Amen Feizabadi is a fellow of the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2023 to January 2024.
Artist
Dilek Mayatürk
Dilek Mayatürk was born in 1986 in Istanbul and studied sociology both in her home city and in Klagenfurt. As a documentary filmmaker and producer, she has worked for different media. In 2014, she released Cesaret Koleksiyonu (Yeniinsan Yayınevi), in 2020, Brache (Hanser Berlin), and in 2021, Bir Daha Yok Çiçeği (Klaros Yayınları). She has received extensive recognition for her work, including fellowships from the City of Berlin and the Preußischer Seehandlung Fondation.
Dilek Mayatürk is a resident at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2023 to January 2024.
Dilek Mayatürk was born in 1986 in Istanbul and studied sociology both in her home city and in Klagenfurt. As a documentary filmmaker and producer, she has worked for different media. In 2014, she released Cesaret Koleksiyonu (Yeniinsan Yayınevi), in 2020, Brache (Hanser Berlin), and in 2021, Bir Daha Yok Çiçeği (Klaros Yayınları). She has received extensive recognition for her work, including fellowships from the City of Berlin and the Preußischer Seehandlung Fondation.
Dilek Mayatürk is a resident at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2023 to January 2024.