Teaching
(all sorts of) embodied voice
and vocal creativity
...in her own words:
how to ‘become sound’ !
Esin Gunduz, PhD & MA in Music composition
BA in Voice (and Composition)
... plus 20 years of teaching experience
‘Sense of Energy’
Brilliant collaborator Roopa Mahadevan says:
“Esin is brilliant, simply put. She understands that music is made in the moment. And that every individual has the power to create meaning. Even when we invoke a rigorous tradition of several hundreds of years before, we sing for a present need. We sing based on instincts that are responding to the present. Her music calls on that sense of presence and authenticity...
When I first performed publicly with Esin, I was petrified of singing music that I couldn't put a label to - that didn't have emotion that I could easily tie to a culture, a place, a tradition, but Esin understands how it's really the making of a language that is the role of an artist.
As a director/composer she is aware of the power of empathy, warmth, and love in collaboration - and that's what she brings in her interactions with co-artists. She is smart too, in knowing how to guide them to perform their best - a skill she wields with compassion and vision.
One of my favorite collaborations to date.”
︎Roopa Mahadevan
versatile vocalist, grounded in the
South Indian classical (Carnatic) tradition
‘Sound in the body’
They Say:
“ Thanks to Esin's vast knowledge of the body and voice, I have been gradually entering to an unknown path of voice, breath, interpretation, and presence, which I intend to integrate to my dance career. Her openness and curiosity to creative paths, has allowed me to pursuit my own creative processes which is something I’m looking forward to! ”
Isabella Cruz
dancer, choreographer, vocalist
École Supérieure de Ballet du Québec
Montreal, Canada & Mexico
Isabella Cruz
dancer, choreographer, vocalist
École Supérieure de Ballet du Québec
Montreal, Canada & Mexico
“ (...) I think anyone who gets the chance to work with Esin would truly benefit from her style of teaching. She’s passionate about what she does and she won’t let you settle for being mediocre. You’ll receive nothing but her best and in return you’ll transform into your best. ”
Tashieka Thompson
vocalist, music teacher
Villa Maria College,
Buffalo, New York, USA
Tashieka Thompson
vocalist, music teacher
Villa Maria College,
Buffalo, New York, USA
Workshops & Lessons
- in person or online -
...where I support people of all ages to:
- relax the throat area = release the presssure of ‘having to’ express
- grow mindful of the whole body as their sound source
- understand the dynamics of ease and resistance in deep(er) breathing
- use their entire body as a soundboard fully and effectively
- develop healthy and balanced habits for safety and longevity in sound making
- develop subtleties of sonic / vocal expression
Through the journey,
the participators:
- recognize and claim their unique soundboard / sounding body
- discover & realize their full vocal / sonic potential
- grow bold in their creative / non-creative pursuits: public-speaking, sound-making (non-professional and professional), improvisation, singing, movement and sound, voicing with choreography, sound art involcing human voice, theater and happenings, composing for voice, (...and many more!)
Workshops
(examples)
Sense of Energy + Color Score
"...a specific technique developed by Dr. Esin Gunduz in collaboration with Indeterminacy Consulting Group (ICG) and visual artist Michael Mandolfo, that allows participants to experience the relationship between color and sound. In the same way synesthetes can “see” sound as colors, and “taste” textures like “round” or “pointy”, participants will learn how to channel incomprehensible energy into a musical form.”
2021 Summer
2021 Spring
2020 Fall
2020 Fall
2019 Summer
picture from a Montreal workshop
CREATING AN OPEN SYSTEM: Performance Lab
An adventurous ensemble led by artists in residence Dustin Finer, Esin Gunduz, Sarah Rossy, and Ben Zucker to workshop original compositions to be premiered in focus around this year’s theme: Creating an Open System.
The 2020 Indeterminacy Festival is focusing on envisioning a new social structure that orients the individual around environmental science. How does an individual, from any discipline view themselves, in relation to larger processes such as thermodynamics? How does this orientation alter their actions? The festival seeks to forward a new politics and propose new strategies for seeking individual freedom and generating collective action, taking to heart David Lapoujade’s dictum that “at the heart of the human there is nothing human.” By stepping outside of the human paradigm and stepping into an alternate one that doesn’t place humans at the center, what might innovation look like?
The 2020 Indeterminacy Festival is focusing on envisioning a new social structure that orients the individual around environmental science. How does an individual, from any discipline view themselves, in relation to larger processes such as thermodynamics? How does this orientation alter their actions? The festival seeks to forward a new politics and propose new strategies for seeking individual freedom and generating collective action, taking to heart David Lapoujade’s dictum that “at the heart of the human there is nothing human.” By stepping outside of the human paradigm and stepping into an alternate one that doesn’t place humans at the center, what might innovation look like?
2019 Winter
for CS1 Curatorial Projects
(2019) CLAIMING OUR VOICES:
a Laboratory for Transformation through Sound
During our reading and discussion group1, “Your Silence Will Not Protect You: The Writing of Audre Lorde”, our conversation leader Gabrie’l Atchison asked which lines within the Audre Lorde’s poem Coal stayed with the participants. Several of us in the group, all of whom were identified as female, brought up the following lines. All of us were pointing to our throats explaining how we “know” this feeling:
“(…)Some words live in my throat
Breeding like adders. (…)” 2
Indeed, the specialists of psychosomatic wellness state that, across the areas of the body, neck is the narrowest and therefore energy can easily become restricted there. Psychosomatically and energetically, the neck is associated with “doubting own ability or others’ abilities”. The throat is associated with our “perception of our value to others”, “expression and communication”, and the “imbalance between asking and receiving” in general, as well as “the sense of social responsibility”.3
Do our physical voices affect the tone of our inner voices? Don Ihde, talking about the phenomenon of “inner voice”, states how through constantly imagining with other people’s voices we become “quasi-other”4 ...
How much of (the behind-the-scenes) construction of our inner voice is shaped by burdens and various tensions related to our physical voices?
How can we claim our inner voices and therefore our own ways of thinking and uttering?
Join our workshops led by Esin Gunduz, Ph.D.
We will:
_ relocate the voice from throat to the overall body
_ join our forces together by humming, encourage each other to claim our inner voices and power of expression in order to promote social responsibility and change:
- In what ways becoming vocal in our bodies would encourage us to utter our inner voices / inner truth?
- How can becoming vocal in our bodies and humming together as one big body enable us to connect with each other and promote social change and responsibility?
In addition, there will be short selected readings to further our understanding of this topic by varied scholars and literary writers.
(... continued with bibliography)
(... continued with bibliography)
︎message Esin to work with her
or to let her design a workshop for your community!
you may email her at:
esingunduz at gmail dot com
Thank you!
active on:
also: ︎ ︎