The Anatolian Women’s Choir Seyyare emerged from the spontaneous act of singing together during the funeral ceremony of Filiz Taşkın, a pioneer of migrant resistance, who passed away on January 17, 2024. Under the patronage of Shermin Langhoff, artistic director of the Maxim Gorki Theatre, and the musical direction of the renowned singer Sema Moritz, the choir members—women with migration and exile experiences—bring centuries-old folk songs from Anatolia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East to the stage in more than ten languages.

Following its premiere on March 8, 2025, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, further concerts took place on July 13, 2025, and March 8, 2026, at the Gorki Theatre. In response to the overwhelmingly positive reception of their extensive linguistic and musical repertoire, the choir has been performing regularly since October 2025 in the theatre production The Red House, directed by acclaimed stage director Ersan Mondtag at the Maxim Gorki Theatre.

The Seyyare – Anatolian Women’s Choir has gained increasing recognition with each performance, leading to multiple invitations to participate in festivals both in Germany and internationally, including Pop-Kultur Festival Berlin 2026 and an event hosted by cultural figure Okan Bayülgen in Istanbul in 2026.

Musicians: Martin Lillich – bass; Serkan Duran – bouzouki & bağlama; N.N. – percussion
Choristers: Asmin Su Kök, Ayşe Berrin Konuralp, Barbara Basile, Betül Fırat, Chen Maimon, Dilara Pak, Dilek Ölçüm, Eda Aylin Doğanay, Ella Olivia Bender Semerci, Gözde Böcü, Gülüzar Mertin, Hülya Ede-Uçta, Kebire Yücesan Friebel, Meltem Schulze, Nebahat Başbolat, Necla Deniz, Selda Şakar, Selver Mersin, Sermin Doğanay, Suna Kök
Conductor: Sema Moritz

Sema Moritz
Sema Moritz is a singer, storyteller, and musical researcher. Living between Berlin and Istanbul, she has been working for over four decades at the intersections of music, memory, and artistic freedom. She understands music as a space for encounter, autonomy, and collective remembrance.

Her career began in the 1980s with classical Turkish music. After training in singing and acting, she became a member of the Turkish Workers’ Choir of West Berlin (Batıberlin İşçi Korosu) and later performed with the ensemble Kreuzberger Freunde. In 1989, she co-founded the group Sema & Taksim in Berlin with Dieter Moritz, developing a wide-ranging repertoire spanning jazz standards, Türkü (traditional folk songs), experimental music, and jazz-influenced operettas. She has collaborated with musicians such as Kamalesh Maitra and Charlie Mariano.

Throughout her career, Sema Moritz has released numerous albums exploring diverse musical traditions and cultural memory. Her projects bring together songs and voices from Jewish, Sephardic, Armenian, and Turkish contexts, including tangos, foxtrots, and waltzes from 1920s–40s Istanbul, as well as songs of resistance. In doing so, she continues the tradition of great Turkish stage singers of that era—a chanson lineage that has yet to receive the recognition it deserves in Germany.

With programs such as The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin (after Nazım Hikmet, together with Tuncel Kurtiz), A Composer of Beyoğlu (about the Armenian composer Karnik Garmiryan), and Legendary Ladies, she uncovers hidden musical histories—often beyond official cultural narratives. Her performances are not nostalgic retrospectives, but artistic acts of reclaiming cultural diversity.

Her current project is the SEYYARE Choir—a cross-generational, migrant women’s choir in Berlin dedicated to collective voice and musical empowerment. As its musical director, she also shapes the theatre production The Red House at the Maxim Gorki Theatre.