IMPROV: Improvisation in folk & jazz music in interrelation with audiovisuals and contemporary dance

This article presents the idea of interdisciplinary art & performance and progress within the PhD thesis of Art: Production & Research. Nehir Akansu is a versatile violist who plays and improvises in classical, jazz, folk and experimental styles. Music took her to various countries around the world. In her orchestral career, she has played in the Young Euro Classic Berlin in Konzerthaus, Roma Santa Cecilia Concert Hall with the Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, participated in the Baltic Sea Youth Orchestra tour to Bonn Beethovenfest, Usedom, St Petersbourg, Milan and Verona music festivals. She won the scholarship in an advanced orchestral specialization program at the Santiago de Compostela School of Music and she played as a trainee in the Orchestra Real Filharmonia de Galicia Graduated from the master "Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) at Berklee College of Music, started composing her improvisations and recorded 8 songs in various styles of world music for her final project. This work opened the opportunity to become a member of Dutch viola society and she was accepted to participate in the International Viola Congress in Rotterdam 2018, to speak about "New Ways to Perform" and played her composition "Rotterdam Blues" duo with viola & piano which is composed especially for this congress. Currently she lives in Valencia, PhD student in Art: Production and Research at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Polytechnic University. Her project and investigation focus on improvisation in folk & jazz music in interrelation with audiovisuals and contemporary dance. Also she continues to be part of the classical music world, and is a member of the University of Valencia Philharmonic Orchestra since 2018. Lately, participated in Valencia Intramurs Festival and Circle Migrants with contemporary dance and musical improvisation collaboration. She performed in the Requiem interdisciplinary production of Cienfuegos Danza for their 20th anniversary, they performed this spectacle in the principal theatre of Valencia and with that they participated in Madrid Dance Festival 2021. In January 2021 she became a member of Cia Matteria interdisciplinar contemporary ensemble which fuses musical improvisation with contemporary dance, contact and sculptures in form of foam and similar materials. They created a choreography called "ANIMA" (spirit) and performed this piece in Valencia Sala Russafa, Festival Cabanyal Intim and they got the scholarship of Gomera artist residence for November 2021.