Bio

A cellist, composer, improviser and researcher. Her main interest in music is the possibility of freedom in moving between genres, and experimenting with ways to explore going behind them.

Background is rooted in growing up in Istanbul and engaging with conversatory education on European music, Turkish makam, and later on contemporary, electroacoustic and experimental music. Her practice focuses on composition, improvisation, collaborative projects, sound installations, site-specific works and socially and culturally engaged musical projects and creative educational workshops. 

Sound installation, ‘I Wonder How My Homeland Fares’, was exhibited at Salt Beyoğlu, Winter Garden in Istanbul in 2024. Her electroacoustic composition ‘MAERSK’ was included in the compilation album ‘String Layers’ by 7k! Berlin Records in 2020. Her compositions have been performed at music festivals such as BEAST FEaST and the Journey of Sound Festival in Turkey, as well as the Bilgi New Music Festival in Istanbul.

Has released albums as part of the iKKi Duo, including Nine Stages of Note Arriving (2021) and Wandering Rocks (2023), which are comprovisation projects featuring the cello, objects, the piano and electronics. In 2021, the Klank.ist ensemble released the album V. Dialogues together with Eda Er, Aslı Kobaner and Fulya Uçanok, including the ensemble compositions. In 2018, the SAVT free improvisation trio released the album Birinci Hane (First Grade/Home), featuring Merve Salgar on tanbur and Elif Canfeza Gündüz on classical kemençe. The group’s debut album was released by AK Müzik in Istanbul, and they were featured in Sound Dreams of Istanbul, a documentary film about Istanbul’s improvisational music scene directed by Anıl Eraslan.

Organises concert series including na-mute-na (Istanbul, 2016); Bonding Sounds (Berlin, 2024, with Merve Salgar and supported by Musikfonds E.V.); Golgatha Improvisation Series (Berlin, 2024,  with Ulrike Ruf); and Friday Evening Improvisations at Cemetery Chapels (Berlin, 2025, with Ruf and funded by Inm Berlin). 

In 2024, she was in residence at the OneBeat Institute in New York with the project ‘Meşk’, developed by Ruşen Can Acet. (The Meşk project currently focuses on teaching Turkish folk music, mainly the baglama, using digital tools. The aim is to make it more widely accessible and not limited to one geographical area). Her previous residencies include Schiesslhaus AIR in Kollnburg, Germany (2023); the Field Kitchen Academy’s ‘Silence with the Consent of Sound’ programme in Berlin (2019); and the OneBeat Exchange Programme in Istanbul (2016).

Holds a PhD in Music from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Advanced Studies, ITU MIAM, researching improvisational playful thinking as a tool for supporting creative communities in her project “A Practice-based Research on Musical Improvisation: Collaborative Improvisation as Play’ (2022). She also holds a Master’s degree in Music Theory and Composition from the ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory, where she worked as a research and teaching assistant for seven years. For her Master’s, she focused on analysing the time-makam scale of Turkish Makam music composer Tanbûrî Cemil Bey’s cello improvisations using Ozan Baysal’s “Zaman-Makam” analysis model. For her bachelor’s and high school conservatory education, she studied the cello part-time at Istanbul University, graduating from high school and completing a Bachelor’s degree in Composition and Cello at ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory. Since 2023, she has been based in Berlin.