EDA ER
Composer & Multimedia Artist & Vocalist
Eda Er is a composer, multimedia artist, and vocalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her artistic practice blends storytelling, sound, and visual media to craft immersive experiences that intimately explore themes of identity, belonging, trauma, and cultural heritage. Her work reflects the complexities of navigating multiple identities, using cultural fluidity as a metaphor for existing between spaces—belonging to nothing and everything at once. By integrating electronic music, classical composition, traditional Turkish visual forms, and installation art with emerging technologies, she challenges conventional artistic boundaries. Central to her practice is the exploration of sound’s ability to evoke memory and space, fostering a dialogue between past and present while encouraging reflection and transformation in the listener.
Her compositions have been performed in the United States and Europe by ensembles such as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Multilatérale, Kugoni Trio, Hermes Ensemble, Hezarfen Ensemble, Atlas Ensemble, Vertixe Sonora, Ensemble Suono Giallo, Nordic Trombone Quartet, Eco Ensemble, Ninth Planet, MusikFabrik, Les Trombones de Bâle, and Munich Tetra Quartet. Her music has been featured in festivals and organizations, including Gaudeamus Festival, Festival Mixtur, IKSV International Theater Festival, and Mamut Art Project. She has collaborated with renowned soloists such as Nicholas Isherwood and Johanna Vargas. As a performer, she works with voice and electronics, integrating her compositional practice into live performance.
Eda is the co-founder of Klank.ist, a collective primarily formed by female-identifying artists. As part of Klank.ist, she led an improvisation ensemble and curated monthly events, fostering a space for experimental and interdisciplinary performances.
Her debut album, Esse, in collaboration with renowned jazz musician Simon Sieger, was released on Elektramusic and is available on both digital and physical platforms.
Eda is a recipient of the Nicola de Lorenzo Prize in Music Composition twice. (2024,2025). She is an alumna of the Académie Voix Nouvelles at Royaumont and has collaborated with a wide range of artists, theater companies, and collectives, including Clout Theater, Ikincikat, A Corner in the World, and Berika Collective. In addition to her creative work, she teaches music composition and production, focusing on electronic music, new media, and interdisciplinary artistic practices.
Her research interests include the integration of Ebru, the traditional Turkish art of marbling, as a visual and performative notation system in music composition. This exploration is at the core of her current project, Fluid Narratives, which investigates how Ebru’s fluid and organic forms can be translated into sound and interdisciplinary performance structures. More about this project can be found at www.fluidnarratives.com.
She has studied composition with past mentors Tolga Tüzün, Reuben De Lautour, and Wim Henderickx, and is currently mentored by Ken Ueno, Edmund Campion, Myra Melford, and Carmine Cella. She has also participated in masterclasses and had lessons with composers including Philippe Leroux, Du Yun, Francesco Filidei, Diana Soh, Chaya Czernowin, Rand Steiger, Mike Svoboda, Stefano Gervasoni, Toshio Hosokawa, Joël Bons, Eva Reiter, Yann Robin, Henri Fourès, and Johannes Maria Staud.
She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition with a Designated Emphasis on New Media at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is affiliated with the Music Department, CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technologies), and BCNM (Berkeley Center for New Media).