Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu is a cellist, improviser, composer, and artistic researcher from Istanbul, based in Berlin. Her main approach is grounded in the perspectives of reinterpreting musical genres and exploring their boundaries through the idea of sound. Her work ranges from improvisatory practices, electroacoustic and free improvised cello performances, electroacoustic compositions and sound works. She also engages with the concept of play in relation to artistic practices, as well as in conceptual and collaborative works.
Her releases include a duo album with Fulya Uçanok, iKKi Duo’s “Nine Stages of Note Arriving,” and “Wandering Rocks,” 2023, as 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, including the ensemble’s comprovisations. In 2020, they released the album “Birinci Hane” (First Grade/Home) with the SAVT free improvisation trio, with Merve Salgar on tanbur and Elif Canfeza Gündüz on classical kemençe. Her solo 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 the Journey of Sound Festival in Turkey, the Bilgi New Music Festival in Istanbul, and BEAST FEaST.
She was an artist in residence at Schieesslhaus Air, Kollnburg, Germany in 2023, Field Kitchen Academy Silence with the Consent of Sound in Berlin 2019 and One Beat Exchange Program, Istanbul in 2016. She studied as a cellist and composer in Eurogenetic* classical music and Turkish makam music at the Conservatory of Istanbul University and the State Conservatory for Turkish Music at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU TMDK). She completed her Master’s degree at Music Theory and Composition at ITU TMDK, where she worked as a research and teaching assistant for seven years. She completed her Ph.D. in 2022, at the ITU Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM) with her practice-based research titled “A practice-based research on musical improvisation : Collaborative Improvisation as a play”. She is actively creating projects in Istanbul, Berlin and internationally.
Photo Credit: Timo Nasseri, Katrin Savvulidi, Engin İriz