‘My City, My Voice’ an artist development project for women musicians at the beginning of their careers, first launched in March 2022 as part of the WOW Sounds (the music programming of the Women of the World Festival (WOW) Istanbul) and this year, the third edition was presented between 2-4 March 2024 within the WOW Sounds of WOW Istanbul 2024. The project focuses on enabling young female musicians to create their own music inspired by the sounds of the cities they live in.
The third edition of the project aiming to strengthen the artistic exchange between different cultures and encourage creativity through artistic forms, brought together artists from Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia.
Kreşendo (former Beats By Girlz Turkey) and the British Council’s ‘My City, My Voice’ project was led by Beril Sarıaltun, the founding director of Kreşendo, in partnership with Brighter Sound from the UK. Together, they have created a selection of works of the musicians joining the programme that has been published on digital platforms in March 2024. Participants have also attended WOW Istanbul on 2-4 March 2024 to showcase their works.
‘My City, My Voice’ brought together 17 female musicians from Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia, who have been selected through an open call. The selected artists are:
- Berfin Deniz Çarıkçıoğlu (Ankara, Turkey)
- Burçe Karaca (Ankara, Turkey)
- Ceren Türkmenoğlu (Ankara, Turkey)
- Deniz Benzetsel (Ankara, Turkey)
- Dora Sesar (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
- Göksu Unur (Ankara, Turkey)
- Güllü Sinem Avcı (Ankara, Turkey)
- Iva Damjanovski (North Macedonia)
- İrem Bozdağ (Ankara, Turkey)
- Katarina Rankovic (Serbia)
- Mirna Hrapović (DJ Marla Felis) (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
- Nikolina Kovacevic (Serbia)
- Öykü Demir (Ankara, Turkey)
- Plamenka Trajkovska (North Macedonia)
- Seda Savaş (Ankara, Turkey)
- Selin Çıngır (Ankara, Turkey)
- Sıla Argun (Ankara, Turkey)