Esin Gunduz
Composer |
Vocal performer

_About

_︎

selected works:

‘...through itself...’
©2023 Esin Gunduz

Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Award,
Senso di Voce

in close collaboration with:
Megan Kyle, oboe

featured in:

through itself

album released from
Sonic Transmissions Records
Sept 12, 2025

(The cover art links to bandcamp)

cover art: Juliane Schütz

‘...through itself...’* ©2023 draws inspiration from the mystical and philosophical writings of revolutionary Islamic thinker İbn 'Arabî (1165-1240). This 20-minute chamber work is an exploration of profound philosophical concepts of his, through sound.

Each of the four movements explores a different concept, their trajectory mirroring that of Sema, a Sufi ritual.

I. Selam:
yearning to become one with (wajd)

II. Everything is alive:
the life-force inside all existent things (‘even inside a rock’)

III. Perplexity:
the state of bewilderment / non-dual awareness (hayrah)

IV. Oneness:
the state of union / higher state of consciousness (‘immediate tasting’)

(...︎more on bandcamp... )

Senso di Voce’s EP
m a r v e l i n g

cover art: Juliane Schütz

m a r v e l i n g
is a set of live improvisations
that forecast the duo’s upcoming album: through itself.

These two tracks 'marvel at' the sound universe invoked by ‘...through itself…’* ©2023 by Esin Gunduz.

︎

En-he-du-an-na-me-en
©2020

(read more︎)

in close collaboration with:
Rosie Middleton*
mezzosoprano

... based on an ancient Sumerian text by Enheduanna (𒂗𒃶𒌌𒀭𒈾), En-he-du-an-na-me-en explores the struggle and resistance of a silenced woman becoming resonant again!

*10 performances at festival / concert series across UK, Iceland, and Italy.

**Middleton’s ‘Voice(less)’ Commissioning Project.

— for voice & electronics

Improvisations
at ‘Fire Museum Presents’
(Philadephia, Usa):

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

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

released July 7, 2023
Other Minds Records, San Francisco

︎Listen to it on Bandcamp

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.

(read more︎)

in three movements:

i. …an-zà-śè maḫ-àm……as lofty as the horizon…

as featured in:
Works for Loudspeakers #28
Sonorous Circle
(New Zealand)

ii. …ku-ku za-lag ge-eş ĝar… /
…to turn darkness into light…

iii. …ur-re ca-mu-u-hul-le… /
…to make you joyous…

(read more︎
& the SBL 2021
conference presentation)

Medea Travelling
©2022, ©2023

In collaboration with:
Emre Koyuncuoğlu, Simon Wachsmuth, Yasemin Nur

︎Click on the image to hear an excerpt.

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

(read more ︎)

... 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)

(read more ︎)

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.

— for voice & electronics:
sound & sound design for choreography, video, theatre play.

Improvisations
-excerpt-
by Senso di Voce
@ 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.

Click this text to go to the duo’s website.

—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.

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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

︎workshops & teaching
Educator’s Profile

active on:

( also: ︎ ︎ )

︎Contact ︎ via the online form here

or please email: esingund at gmail dot com

Thank you!

Copyright © 2020 Esin Gunduz
Composer | Vocal performer