Mircan Kaia

Mircan Kaia (Kaya) is a musician, a civil engineer and a professional earthquake engineer. The first album she put out was Bizim Ninniler (Our Lullabies), a first of its kind, which was followed by Kül (Ashes). Mircan Kaya, who lives now for the most part in Istanbul, but has her roots in Mingrelia (in what is now the independent Georgia), has become increasingly well known in recent years for her distinctive music; but she brings to the Turkish cultural scene much more than her music.

Her family comes from the Megrel-Laz ethnic group who migrated to Turkey from Batumi, Georgia. After completing middle school and graduating from Nisantasi Girl’s High School in Istanbul, she studied civil engineering at Yıldız Technical University and completed a master's degree on earthquake engineering at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Her engineering career is full of stories of success dealing with advanced innovative engineering technologies. Operating her own engineering company dealing with advanced engineering and seismic technologies acting as the representative of FIP INDUSTRIALE S.p.A based in Italy, directed several important international engineering projects. She was trained on advanced engineering and seismic technologies in France, Italy, and Jordan as well as in Turkey.

She started singing very early, in infancy, preferring to sing adult songs, rather than those for babies and children. Singing with orchestras in wedding ceremonies gradually became an ordinary activity for her. At an early age, her singing of classical Turkish Music would produce smiles of surprise in her listeners. She has studied music with private music teachers, started performing in front of audience when she was a child. Performed with the Classical Turkish Music Choir of the University for four years. Performed and written songs with her band for six years during the university years.

She carved out a niche for herself on the music scene with the albums Bizim Ninniler and Kül, which she put out in 2005. Thousands of babies are sleeping with her healing voice singing lullabies now. This album is the first in its genre covering traditional Anatolian lullabies. This album was followed by another successful album - Kul & Ashes- with contemporary arrangements of traditional songs from Anatolia, Georgia and Bosnia. She was also invited to contribute an improvisational dirge and lullaby for Bir Beyaz Ölüm, an album produced by the Ministry of Culture in commemoration of the soldiers who died at Sarikamis. That album features accomplished traditional musicians and closes with an improvisational dirge and lullaby recorded by Mircan with great Turkish cellist, Ugur Isik who plays also on Mircan's third album "Sala" which has received very good reviews from many music authorities. The album was reviewed by FROOTS magazine and described as a Pre-Raphaelite tapestry, a genius music work full of juxtapositions. The album, actually represents the multi-cultural blend of Mircan's inner personality and her music which fits very well with the environment surrounding her combining many different elements with respect to geography, language, religions, traditions, etc.

In 2006, she expanded the operational scope of her engineering company which operates in advanced engineering and earthquake technologies and founded UCM (UnCatalogued Music Production), which implements an idealistic philosophy of working with independent culture and art projects. She released three more albums in two years time. NUMINOSUM - an imaginary and dreamy musical journey based on the concept of "numinous conscious" used by Carl Gustav Jung. She combined her own lyrics with the poetry of Rumi. This album was recorded in Bristol, UK with he post jazz group Limbo. Roger Mills and Osman Kent worked on the final edition, mixing, mastering and sound engineering of the album.

Before she set off for her advanced master study in the University of Padua and the Technical University of Catalonia, Mircan Kaia released her most avant-garde music project OUTIM - Once Upon a Time in Mingrelia, a multi disciplinary work combining journeys to Georgia and Eastern Black Sea of Turkey, writing a book, constructing a house with local materials carpenters, recording a music album by using her own lyrics as well as the poetry of the Mingrelian poet Xhelimishi Xasani. OUTIM is aiming at contributing to add a new alternative cultural conscious to the metropolitan values, which is turning to prototypes day by day. OUTIM will help overcome the rigid way of looking to and expressing the folkloric values bringing the new colors to the folkloric scene. Such a way of looking could only be achieved from the metropolitan artists directed towards the local values.

In October, 2008, Mircan began working on an advanced master’s degree on historical artifacts with rotations in universities in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Czechoslovakia through a European Commission grant. She also studied music theory in England.

Currently, apart from coordinating vital engineering projects, she is working on a new album which brings together the masters musicians from different parts of the world. This album is based on the poetry of the great female poet Gülten Akın of Turkey.

Discography

Bizim Ninniler 2005

Kül 2005

Sala 2006

Kül & Ashes 2006

Numinosum 2007

Outim (Once Upon a Time in Mingrelia)

References

<references>http://www.mircan.net</ref> <references>http://www.ucmproduction.com</ref> <references>http://mircan.mondomix.com/en/artiste.htm</ref> <references>http://www.flyglobalmusic.com/fly/archives/europe_reviews/mircan_sala.html</ref> <references>http://www.cyclicdefrost.com/blog/2008/08/25/mircan-with-limbo-%E2%80%93-numinosum-uncatalogued-music-productions/</ref> <references>http://www.newint.org/columns/media/music/2008/04/01/kul-and-ashes/</ref> <references>http://www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/depremmuh/publications.htm</ref> <references>http://www.did.org.tr/eng/?sf=icerik&ktg=301&mad=ABOUT%20US</ref> <references>http://kutuphane.tbmm.gov.tr:8088/2002/200202435.pdf</ref> <references>http://www.recercat.net/handle/2072/43215</ref>