Bio

A cellist, composer, improviser, and researcher.

One of the main interests is to explore moving between musical genres, while also experimenting with ways to go beyond them through a playful exploration of the presence and absence of sound.

Background rooted in growing up in Istanbul and engaging with Eurogenetic music, Turkish makam, contemporary, electroacoustic, and experimental music. Her practice focuses on composition, improvisation, collaborative projects, sound installations, site-specific works, and creating socially and culturally engaged musical acts. She performs concerts internationally, both solo and in collaborations. ​

Released albums as a duo with Fulya Uçanok, iKKi Duo’s “Nine Stages of Note Arriving*”and “Wandering Rocks” (2023), a comprovisation project featuring cello, objects, piano, and electronics. In 2021, the Klank.ist ensemble released the album “V.Dialogues” together with Eda Er, Aslı Kobaner, and Fulya Uçanok, featuring the ensemble’s comprovisations. In 2018, the album “Birinci Hane” (First Grade/Home) was released by the SAVT free improvisation trio with Merve Salgar on tanbur and Elif Canfeza Gündüz on classical kemençe. The SAVT trio is among the first ensembles in Turkey to engage in free improvisation with traditional Ottoman/Turkish instruments. Their debut album was released by AK Müzik in Istanbul, and the group was featured in “Sound Dreams of Istanbul”, a documentary film about the improvisational music scene in Istanbul, directed by Anıl Eraslan.

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

Her solo sound installation “I Wonder How My Homeland Fares” was exhibited at Salt Beyoğlu, Winter Garden in Istanbul (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, the Journey of Sound Festival in Turkey, and the Bilgi New Music Festival in Istanbul.

She holds a PhD in Music from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Advanced Studies, ITU MIAM, on improvisational playful thinking as a tool for supporting creative communities; “A Practice-based Research on Musical Improvisation: Collaborative Improvisation as a Play” (2022). She holds a Master’s degree in Music Theory and Composition from ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory, where she worked as a research and teaching assistant for seven years. Her Master’s focused on the cello improvisations of Turkish Makam music composer Tanbûrî Cemil Bey, analyzing the time-makam scale using Ozan Baysal’s “Zaman-Makam” analysis model. She was a part-time cello conservatory student at Istanbul University and graduated from high school and bachelor’s at ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory with a double major Bachelor’s in Composition and Cello.

She was in residence at the OneBeat Institute 2024 in New York with the project “Meşk”, developed by Ruşen Can Acet, focusing on teaching Turkish folk music using digital tools. She was an artist-in-residence at Schiesslhaus AIR in Kollnburg, Germany, in 2023; at Field Kitchen Academy, Silence with the Consent of Sound, in Berlin in 2019; and at the OneBeat Exchange Program in Istanbul in 2016.

She is currently working on her solo album with compositions for cello, singing, fixed media, and field recordings. She continues collaborating in a duo with Ulrike Ruf, in iKKi Duo with Fulya Uçanok, in SAVT trio with Merve Salgar and Elif Canfeza Gündüz, and as a collective member of Klank.ist. She continues musical collaborations, curates concerts, teaches, and gives workshops.

Lives and works in Berlin as a freelance artist since 2023.