“Cansu Tanrıkulu has that rare quality of creating art that is beyond description. A warrior as an improvisor, a reflective and adventurous composer, and a voice that can either melt your heart or make it jump a beat.”
Greg Cohen
Cansu Tanrıkulu is a singing multi-media artist and composer working both as a leader and sideman. She is one of the busiest young voices in Berlin’s Creative Music Scene leading/co-leading multiple bands including Melez (w. Jim Black & Elias Stemeseder), Meow! (w. Jim Black, Liz Kosack & Dan Peter Sunderland) , Tanrıkulu/Cohen/Delius (w. Greg Cohen & Tobias Delius) and Last Chance to Misbehave (w. Julia Hülsmann & Mia Knop Jacobsen).
Her elastic singing, wide stylistic vocabulary and fearless approach to melody and text based improvisation made her an in-demand vocalist in multiple genres. She performed in renowned platforms of Europe including Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2019 with Meow!, 42. Leipziger Jazztage “Fish & Chips” and Enjoy Jazz Festival with Max Andrzejewski’s HÜTTE, Belgrade Jazz Festival 2018 with Julia Hülsmann’s Oktet and stages including Birmingham Symphony Hall with James Banner’s USINE.
As a composer Tanrıkulu’s initial instinct is to frame topics that are hard to imagine as musical entities. Her piece for large ensemble based on actual questions rape survivors were pressured to answer about their experience has particularly caught attention and had been featured in the album by Planet 9, a compositional project on women’s rights directed by Julia Hülsmann and supported by the Universitat der Künste Berlin. With her compositions she has received the chance to perform in festivals including Kurt Weill Festival 2017 and got supported by the Berlin Senate. She also recently received the Jazz Institute Berlin-Jazz-Preis der Karl Hofer Gesselschaft for Soloist.
