Born in Ankara in 1985, Sinem Altan began taking composition lessons from Azerbaijani composer Arif Melikov at the age of 7. When she was eleven, she passed the entrance examination for the composition / piano department at the »Hanns Eisler« School of Music in Berlin. In 2002, she continued her composition studies at the UdK, and simultaneously studied music theory and piano at »Hanns Eisler«. She then studied composition at the Freiburg University of Music. From 2008 to 2010, she was composer in residence at the Neukölln Opera in Berlin. Her recent works include her acclaimed setting of a series of tales about »Keloglan«, a character in Turkish folklore, which was developed in cooperation with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and received the »Junge Ohren Sonderpreis«, an award for compositions for young audiences, in 2011. Altan is currently working as a music director at the Maxim Gorki Theatre, Ballhaus Naunynstraße and Atze Music Theatre in Berlin. Her compositions have been premiered by the Bielefeld Philharmonic, Württemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn and Berlin's state youth orchestra, among others. As a member of Netzwerk Junge Ohren (Young Ears Network), she served as a juror for the »YEAH! Competition for music mediation« in 2013 and 2014. In 2015 she premiered a city opera that was commissioned by Freiburg's theatre.
