Kaan Bıyıkoğlu & Cansu Tanrıkulu
Kaan Bıyıkoğlu studied piano with Prof. Semra Kartal and shared the stage with Turkish jazz musicians such as Tuna Ötenel, Yıldız İbrahimova, Yahya Dai and Kürşat And. Bıyıkoğlu finished his master’s studies at the Middle East Technical University Informatics Institute and at Başkent University Ankara State Conservatory with David Ezra Okonşar. At the Rotterdam Conservatorium Bıyıkoğlu studied jazz piano and harmony with Kris Goessens and Rob van Bavel, composition and orchestration with Ilja Reijngoud. He attended master classes and workshops given by Barry Harris, Charlie Haden, Peter Erskine, Jason Moran, Miguel Zenon and Misha Alperin and participated in numerous festivals, concerts, radio and television broadcasts, and album recordings in Europe. Kaan Bıyıkoğlu returned back to Turkey in 2013, and taught piano and harmony at the Jazz Department of Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory. Since 2015, he has been residing and continuing his musical activities in Istanbul.
Cansu Tanrıkulu is an internationally recognized vocalist, multimedia artist, composer and improviser based in Berlin. She is one of the busiest young voices in the European Creative Music Scene leading multiple band and working as a recording/ performing artist for established projects. She composes for a range of projects from solo to large ensembles, installations and theater pieces and currently expanding her repertoire of experimental vocal art combined with sound design and shape-shifting structures of music for collaboration with interdisciplinary creatives.
Kaan Bıyıkoğlu & Cansu Tanrıkulu were residents at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from February to May 2023 as a tandem of the German-Turkish co-production grants supported by the Allianz Kulturstiftung.