Esin Gunduz
Composer |
Vocal performer 




︎En-he-du-an-na-me-en
©2020
In Close Collaboration with:
Rosie Middleton, mezzosoprano







Improvisations
at fire museum presents
(philadephia, usa)




Medea Travelling
©2022, ©2023, and ongoing


In collaboration with the project creators:
Emre Koyuncuoğlu, Simon Wachsmuth, and Yasemin Nur

Click here / on the image to hear an excerpt.

︎multi-disciplinary: Medea ‘on -a thin- line’ (2022)

... the myth of Medea is reconsidered, producing a critical look at all the texts. In these performances, video art, installation, experimental sound installation, performance and interactive theater are intertwined in a unique space!

︎theatre play: Medea Fine-Tuning (2023)

As part of a multidisciplinary project inspired by Greek mythology, Medea, Fine-Tuning gives a modern spin to the wild story of Medea by setting the current political trajectory as the background.

upcoming: feature art-film (2025)

— for voice & electronics (sound, sound design)





Tierceron
an album of improvisations
by Senso di Voce and Henry Birdsey

released July 7, 2023
Other Minds Records, San Francisco


︎Listen to it on Bandcamp

voice, harmonium: Esin Gunduz
oboe, English horn: Megan Kyle
voilin: Henry Birdsey

Reverb: Silo City “Marine A” model by Henry Birdsey

Recording, editing, mix: Henry Birdsey
Recorded at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, July 2019


OM-1037-2 © all rights reserved





︎Lights on Inanna
©2016-17
... based on three ancient Sumerian tablets, on both the humanity’s cultural / psychological projections on women and the multiplicity within female soul.

Click on this text for info & the SBL 2021 conference presentation.


— for an ensemble of five players (each doubling):
oboe | English horn, trombone | bass trombone, violin | viola, cello | electric* cello, percussion: vibraphone | marimba, cymbals | crash, tom toms | Chinese drum, and electronics.

*optional




Improvisations
-excerpt-
@ Hallwalls Contemporary Art Centre, 2021





Sounding Spaces
©2021
with Senso di Voce ( This excerpt is best heard with 🎧 )

...embodying musical resonances across time, geography, and genre.


—six-channel sound installation

Sounding Spaces: Passage
extends the passages we build in our live performances, through new layers of transforming materials, to create an experience that resonates the transitional space between the past and the now.

—instrumentation of the performances on the recording: voice, oboe, English Horn, and tremolo harmonium.

—six-channel sound installation:
Sound exciters, amplifiers, foam board, wire.





︎coniunctio
©2019-20
... based on the medieval alchemical processes; on the ways that the relationship between one’s work and her soul transforms through them.

Click this text for more info.

—for two mouth-harmonicas.

Tremolo harmonicas were used in this recording. Professional harmonica players are not required.



Senso di Voce
presents:
SONIC IMPRESSIONS
©2021


In collaboration with Memorial Art Gallery,
Senso di Voce presents a virtual concert inspired by the exhibition: “Renaissance Impressions: Sixteenth-Century Master Prints from the Kirk Edward Long Collection”

... which explores the emergence and transformative impact of the print medium on the visual culture of Renaissance Europe.


Curated by Senso di Voce, the concert includes Esin’s work: Bogalele (2021), inspired by the cantu a tenòre tradition of Sardinia and the throat-playing tradition of the Teke Nomads in Southern Turkey.



︎Iron Softens in Union
from: States of Iron
©2012-13
... imagining the intense acoustical interference between instruments as an amalgam of metal and spirit.

Click this text / image for more info and the recording.

— for bass flute, bass clarinet, and voice






excerpt from:
Interludes ©2019
for Senso di Voce





Proximity of Rituals / Ritüellerin Yakınlığı
©2015

“A worldly renown is nothing, other than a breath of wind
that blows now here, now there
and changes name
when it has changed its course.”
Prugatory XI. 100
Divine Comedy (1320)
Dante Alighieri

... Click the text for more.
____________
lullaby
mourning song

both
easing us
into

︎

sleep



— for two violas and electronics




excerpt from
Senso di Voce:
As above, so below

(2018)

Senso di Voce released the full hour long video of this concert with spatialized sound and stunning visuals from the Silo City (that the performance took place in):

Please find the link on our website
...and consider supporting us with a small donation!
︎Senso di Voce website




︎Sense of Energy
©2018
... the sense and the bodily experience of types of physical energies are imagined as sound and translated into physical vibrations of sound:

. contained potential
. lift-induced drag
. potential to kinetic

Click this text for more info.

— for two or more instruments / voices




learn about
Senso di Voce
who we are:





If the Water Has Memory
©2009*
Choreographed version with:
Mariana Lucia Marquez


... referring to the earthly phenomena of water remembering substances that were previously dissolved in it, this piece imagines that the rivers remember the songs that were sung for them!

Folk songs from different regions of the world that are about rivers (and often sung along the riversides), were compiled, performed, recorded, and composed.

— originally an electroacoustic piece for mandolin (Avi Avital), percussion, and electronics.

— for electronics: recorded voices.

*Composer’s very first use of electronics.




︎



As Featured in
Larger Ensembles:


solo moment
within Tyshawn Sorey’s
Autoschediasms




with Phillip Greenlief
Improvisatory Ensemble





excerpt from Aliya Ultan’s
Become a House




︎Free Vocal Improvisation (...more recordings)


︎Vocal Performances - prior to 2018
 





Copyright © 2020 Esin Gunduz.
Composer | Vocal performer







Mark
Esin Gunduz
Composer |
Vocal performer 




︎En-he-du-an-na-me-en
©2020
In Close Collaboration with:
Rosie Middleton, mezzosoprano







Improvisations
at fire museum presents
(philadephia, usa)





Medea Travelling
©2022, ©2023, and ongoing


In collaboration with the project creators:
Emre Koyuncuoğlu, Simon Wachsmuth, and Yasemin Nur


Click here / on the image to hear an excerpt.

︎multi-disciplinary: Medea ‘on -a thin- line’ (2022)

... the myth of Medea is reconsidered, producing a critical look at all the texts. In these performances, video art, installation, experimental sound installation, performance and interactive theater are intertwined in a unique space!

︎theatre play: Medea Fine-Tuning (2023)

As part of a multidisciplinary project inspired by Greek mythology, Medea, Fine-Tuning gives a modern spin to the wild story of Medea by setting the current political trajectory as the background.

upcoming: feature art-film (2025)


— for voice & electronics (sound, sound design)





Tierceron
an album of improvisations
by Senso di Voce and Henry Birdsey

released July 7, 2023
Other Minds Records, San Francisco


︎Listen to it on Bandcamp

voice, harmonium: Esin Gunduz
oboe, English horn: Megan Kyle
voilin: Henry Birdsey

Reverb: Silo City “Marine A” model by Henry Birdsey

Recording, editing, mix: Henry Birdsey
Recorded at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, July 2019

OM-1037-2 © all rights reserved





︎Lights on Inanna
©2016-17




Improvisations
-excerpt-
@ Hallwalls Contemporary Art Centre, 2021





Sounding Spaces
©2021
with Senso di Voce
( This excerpt is best heard with 🎧 )






︎coniunctio
©2019-20

Tremolo harmonicas were used in this recording. Professional harmonica players are not required.



Senso di Voce
presents:
SONIC IMPRESSIONS
©2021


In collaboration with Memorial Art Gallery,
Senso di Voce presents a virtual concert inspired by the exhibition: “Renaissance Impressions: Sixteenth-Century Master Prints from the Kirk Edward Long Collection”

... which explores the emergence and transformative impact of the print medium on the visual culture of Renaissance Europe.


Curated by Senso di Voce, the concert includes Esin’s work: Bogalele (2021), inspired by the cantu a tenòre tradition of Sardinia and the throat-playing tradition of the Teke Nomads in Southern Turkey.



︎Iron Softens in Union
from: States of Iron
©2012-13

... imagining the intense acoustical interference between instruments as an amalgam of metal and spirit.

Click this text / image for more info and the recording.

— for bass flute, bass clarinet, and voice






excerpt from:
Interludes ©2019
for Senso di Voce





Proximity of Rituals / Ritüellerin Yakınlığı
©2015






excerpt from
Senso di Voce:
As above, so below

(2018)

Senso di Voce released the full hour long video of this concert with spatialized sound and stunning visuals from the Silo City (that the performance took place in):

Please find the link on our website
...and consider supporting us with a small donation!
︎Senso di Voce website


... referring to the earthly phenomena of water remembering substances that were previously dissolved in it, this piece imagines that the rivers remember the songs that were sung for them!

Folk songs from different regions of the world that are about rivers (and often sung along the riversides), were compiled, performed, recorded, and composed.

— originally an electroacoustic piece for mandolin (Avi Avital), percussion, and electronics.

— for electronics: recorded voices.


*Composer’s very first use of electronics.





︎


As Featured in
Larger Ensembles:


solo moment
within Tyshawn Sorey’s 
Autoschediasms


...


with Phillip Greenlief
Improvisatory Ensemble


...


within Aliya Ultan’s
Become a House










︎Free Vocal Improvisation (...more recordings)


︎Vocal Performances - prior to 2018




Copyright © 2020 Esin Gunduz
Composer | Vocal performer

Mark
“... a stunningly powerful work”
about En-he-du-an-na-me-en
Iceland Dark Music Days 2023 - Harpa Hall, Reykjavik IS
commissioned by & in close collaboration with Rosie Middleton
5:4 review by Simon Cummings

︎ “Dark Music Days - Myrkir músíkdagar (Iceland) 2023 (Part 1)”

︎

“... music that is at once trembling, harmonious, drawn in and inspired, whistling, buzzing, and moaning... yes, yes, all of this at the same time ...”
about Tierceron (2023) an album of improvisations
released from Other Minds (OM) Records - Sf, Ca, Usa
review by Djolo Cultures

︎“Tierceron incertain et divagations de Senso di Voce et Henry Birdsey”

︎


“... a sound wizard! ...”
Rosie Middleton, mezzosoprano

Commissioner: ︎Voice(less) Series - London Uk




“... Esin’s music arises miraculously from the body’s own forgotten rhythms. Reading her score for the first time, I felt as if I had been startled by a secret and unexpected mirror.”
Nathaniel LaNasa, pianist
Commissioner: ︎Ultrafizz voice+ piano+ duo - NyCity Usa



“... sounds as if it is dentelle or some beautiful tapestry.”
about Lights on Inanna
︎Dr. Andrea Young, composer, performer
Collaborator - Montreal Ca

Esin Gunduz, PhD [she/her]

“My practice of composition, vocal performance, and improvisation is rooted in:


embodiment;
becoming nature / life / the fascinating other that is unapologetically itself
and realizing that, in fact, I don’t get to ‘become’ anything. Instead, discovering that I ‘am’. That we all are.


spirituality;
(marveling at) multiplicity in unity and unity in multiplicity within cosmos


meditation;
becoming vibrations -going back to an inherent vibrational state-, to experience the ever-present and ever-changing texture / timbre / weaving of life”

Esin Gunduz

︎

‘Sophia, rhythmic dance of the soul of the world, rainbow of colors and forms, you are the world as a work of art, and you demand from us to understand the world artistically rather than intellectually.  But at the same time, art need not be separated from intellect, imagination need not be removed from thought.  The formation of consciousness that can hold these capacities together seems to me to be the task of this age, and a further part of that task involved the development of the capacity to center such imaginal thought within the events of the world as we now face them.  Active imaginal thought promotes the gradual transforming of the taken-for-granted notion that it is we who are doing the thinking to the stance that it is the world that thinks through us.’

Robert Sardello
Facing the World with Soul:
The Reimagination of Modern Life
2004 Lindisfarne Books, 2nd edition, p.31


~


Originally from Istanbul, Turkiye, for composer, vocal performer, and improviser Esin Gunduz, sound originates in the body. She explores life’s energies as vibrations, timbre as visceral sensory experience, building landscapes from recorded-voices to surround acoustical instrumental textures, creating breathtaking acoustic vistas that have an unveiling quality. Her works stemming from her interest in timbre, traditional music, and ancient texts span mediums: acoustic, electroacoustic, sound installation, and exist within diverse contexts: live / chamber music, and sound: for theatre, with image / moving image, around exhibitions. These shine a light on the multiplicity and unity, the psychological and spiritual overtones of our lives and life itself.

Dr. Gunduz had her works programmed by Music in the Round, Nonclassical, Iklectic, Woolwich Works, Birmingham Opera Company’s Opera Lab (across England), Dark Music Days / Myrkir Músíkdagar at Harpa Concert Hall (Iceland), KM28 of Berlin (Germany), Fruit Market Gallery of Edinburgh (Scotland), Kulturakademie Tarabya Summer Festival of Istanbul (Turkey), Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity (Canada), and Fire Museum Presents of Philadelphia (Usa). Her work in close collaboration with London-based mezzosoprano Rosie Middleton, En-he-du-an-na-me-en, got several reviews. Often inspired by traditional music, Gunduz had private workshops with ensembles of cantu a tenòre of Sardinia in 2023.


Gunduz was one of the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning* awardees as a composer and the vocalist of her transformative duo with Megan Kyle on oboe / English horn: Senso di Voce. Esin’s compositional work in close collaboration with Megan, has been inspired by the writings of revolutionary Islamic thinker İbn 'Arabî (1165-1240). ‘...through itself…’ (2023) is an exploration of İbn 'Arabî’s profound philosophical concepts, through sound. This 20 min. meditative work has been premiered ︎at this concert followed by improvisations that expand on this sonic world, on a shared evening with a duo of Susan Alcorn and Simone Baron. Senso di Voce’s small tour of this new work included the venues: Red Room (Baltimore, MD) and the Institute Library (New Haven, CT).
Previously (Jul 2023), Senso di Voce got their debut album of improvisations with Henry Birdsey (of Tongue Depressor): ︎Tierceron, released from the Other Minds (OM) records of San Francisco.

*This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.


Being originally from Istanbul, Turkey, and having lived in the Usa (New York state), Gunduz has currently moved to Austin, Texas and travels regularly for her projects around the world.

~
Gunduz’s prominent projects include electroacoustic works based on Sumerian tablets and a piece that turns an alchemical process into sound, ︎coniunctio (2020), for the NyCity-based duo Ultrafizz. Her first work around Sumerian culture, ︎Lights on Inanna (2017) had its stage premiere along with the premiere of Alvin Lucier’s new work Monteverdi Shapero (2019) at Banff Centre for the Arts. The second one, En-he-du-an-na-me-en (2020), is based on the text: Exaltation of Inanna by Enheduanna ( , the world’s first author known by name, a Sumerian high-priestess, ca. 2300 BC). This work, that is for voice and electronics, was created in close collaboration with mezzosoprano Rosie Middleton and was commissioned by her for her Voice(less) Commissioning Series:


En-he-du-an-na-me-en was programmed for Iceland Dark Music Days before the pandemic, later been premiered for Nonclassical during Waterloo Festival (Jun 2021), had its second performance at the Iklectic Artlab (Jan 2022), its third performance as part of Music in the Round, Sheffield (Sept 2022) where the composer was hosted in a Q&A —all venues in England, Uk. As a scholar at the Foundazione Isabelle Scelsi, Rosie Middleton gave the work its fourth performance inside the late prolific composer Giacinto Scelsi’s living room in Rome, Italy (Oct 2022). The fifth performance of the work took place as part of Dark Music Days / Myrkir músíkdagar at the Harpa Concert Hall of Iceland (Jan 2023) where it got a review: ︎“A mesmerizing performance of a stunningly powerful work.” by 5:4. Sixth, seventh, and eighth performances of it were staged for Birmingham Opera Company - Opera Lab; open to public, these took place inside the New Street Station of Birmingham! Ninth and tenth performances happened as part of Music in the Round, this time in Portsmouth (Guildhall) and London (Woolwich Works), where the composer was hosted in a Q&A in the latter (Oct 2023).
︎Watch excerpts from En-he-du-an-na-me-en.


An ongoing multi-disciplinary collaborative project of hers is with Simon Wachsmuth, Emre Koyuncuoğlu, and Yasemin Nur. ‘Medea Traveling’ has been staged / showcased in its several versions: As a multidisciplinary event of performances, video art, installation, experimental sound installation, performance, and interactive theater (︎Medea 'on -a thin- line', 2022) which also had Esin as an improviser, then as a theatre play (︎Medea Fine-Tuning / Medea'ya İnce Ayar, 2023), along with a feature art-film to be released in coming years (2025) --This project is being supported by Kulturakademie Tarabya / Tarabya Cultural Academy and Allianz Kulturstiftung. Her multi-disciplinary collaborative project with Roosmarijn Pallandt, where Gunduz envisions / creates sounds around field recordings / images / moving images by artist Pallandt, is in-progress.

Her works for museum/art-spaces with Senso di Voce are multi-faceted. Their six-channel sound installation︎Sounding Spaces (2021) was commisioned by and showcased at Play/Ground Festival. The second iteration of this sound installation Sounding Spaces: Passage (2022), was exhibited at the Frontispace Gallery of University of Rochester. An audio-visual output of Senso di Voce’s own curation, Sonic Impressions (2022) was developed in close relation to the Renaissance Impressions exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery and was streamed in a webinar format of concert and talk by the institution. ︎Watch the audio-visual concert by Senso di Voce: Sonic Impressions.

This program includes Gunduz’s short work: Bogalele which was inspired by the throat-playing tradition of the Teke nomads in Turkey and cantu a tenòre tradition of Sardinia — a tradition that is listed under the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity category of Unesco. Often inspired by traditional music, Dr. Gunduz had the chance of having private workshops with two separate ensembles of cantu a tenòre in 2023: ︎Coro Gabriel (of Tempio Pausania) and ︎Tenore Santa Maria Otzana (of Ottana) in Sardinia.


Dr. Gunduz has presented Lights on Inanna (2016-17), her initial work that was based on Sumerian tablets, under the Music in the Cult section of the Society of Biblical Literature’s (Sbl) Annual Meeting in San Antonio,Tx (Nov. 2021). A researcher of vocal performance, Esin Gunduz has offered workshops for the Indeterminacy Consulting Group & Festival (Ca/Usa), CS1 Curatorial Projects (Usa), and Orchard of Pomegranates in Montréal (Ca). Dr. Gunduz has been an adjunct voice professor at Villa Maria College and holds a PhD in music composition from Suny University at Buffalo.
︎Watch a part of Dr Gunduz’s presentation of her phd dissertation “Lights on Inanna” under the Music and Cult section for Society of Biblical Literature.


Being originally from Istanbul, Turkey, and having lived in New York State, Gunduz has currently moved in to Austin, Texas (Usa) and travels regularly for her projects around the world.


*Having been trained in jazz and improvisation, Gunduz has been on stage as a vocalist & improviser since early 2000’s. Links to some recordings featuring her vocal performance and improvisations are listed below her original works, as well as a link to the list of her vocal performances prior to 2017. If you’d like to know more about her performance practice and how that ties to her compositional work, please feel free to contact her. Thank you.

esingunduz.com




“As a composer, I focus on the nature of sound and its embodiment.

On how we experience sound viscerally, kinesthetically. I explore visceral sensory experience and sound, building landscapes of my own recorded-voice samples to surround acoustical instrumental textures—to create breathtaking vistas.

As humans, we respond to human-voice with a primal empathy. An immediate kind of mirroring takes place. We “know” the tension that is required to produce that sound.

We feel it in our own bodies!

We reflectively react to it at times:
…such as raising our eyebrows when we hear voices in upper-spectra (like a boy-choir),
…or clearing our throats after hearing a “scratchy” throat-sound…

I am particularly fascinated by culture-specific vocal practices and traditional vocal-techniques,
not only because of their complex acoustical spectra,
but also because of how they communicate and convey
a wide range of such direct and human experience.

Life vibrates within those sounds!

Such vocal timbres carry information into a singer’s attitude / psychology / type-of-being / (…)

— phrases of singing are time-capsules of human-life in acoustics!

I learn from these and translate them into instrumental writing.

I aim to recreate the directness of those human-voices, for performers and ensembles.”


© 2018 Esin Gunduz
Composer | Vocal performer












︎Contact ︎ via the online form here
or please email:  esingund at gmail dot com




 active on:                  also:   ︎    ︎





Copyright © 2020 Esin Gunduz.
Composer | Vocal performer




Mark