bio deyhim

Sussan Deyhim was born into a liberal family in Teheran. In her youth, she discovered western composers such as Karl-Heinz Stockhausen and Béla Bartók, as well Iran’s richly diversified music culture. Her stage career began with a ballet performance in the 1970s. Soon, however, she turned to making music. In the 1980s, she moved to New York, where she has become one of the stars of the experimental art and music scene. She has worked as a singer, composer and performing artist with countless jazz musicians such as Micky Hart, Branford Marsalis, Heiner Goebbels and Richard Horovitz. She made a name for herself in the art scene through her work with Shirin Neshat. She wrote the music for their much-praised video installation Turbulent (which won the Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale), in which she also performed. “I work in the same area as Artaud, where performance and Shamanism are closely related. Going on stage means being prepared to leap into the abyss.” (Sussan Deyhim)