We had the good fortune of connecting with Meltem Ege and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
After two bachelors, a Masters, a Doctorate, two decades of performing, touring, and teaching, I’m very excited and proud about where I am in my career. Though I’ve been featured on several recording in the past, I’ve finally diversified my skillset enough to release an independent, self-produced album of original music. It’s very satisfying to have that level of ability and creative control over my music—I’ve had a hand in every step of the process, which has been amazing. Compositionally speaking, I wrote or co-wrote all songs but one, and every song has a very special story and very special place in my heart. The music is about self-discovery, hope, dualities, difficulties, and victories. All songs feature a jazz guitar trio and half of the songs include a string quartet. Recording with strings was a blast! To represent the global life I live, I recorded part of the album in Los Angeles and the rest in Turkey with a band I’ve toured with for many years. I also had a lot of fun with the language; I have songs in Turkish that swing, very cinematic songs in English, and even a song in both languages together. Bringing this album to life has been a long and unconventional road, to say the least, but I’m almost there! It’s currently in the talented hands of Grammy Award winning mixing engineer John Baffa and it’s sounding GOOD.

As far as learning lessons, I’ve learned many, but there are still many to be learned. My next lesson is finding the balance between motherhood and being a creative artist in LA. I had my adorable son while in the process of producing my recent album and it’s safe to say that the process ended up slowing down. I’m learning that being a parent and a creative artist seem to have many parallels—both need patience and nurturing, a very organized approach, and a great deal of focus and presence to stay in the joy of the moment. Also, the challenges are endless, as are the rewards. I’m definitely learning how to manage my time better! I’m grateful to have some amazing musician mothers to look up to who have found ways to be amazing parents and artists like Gretchen Parlato, Luciana Souza, and Becca Stevens, to name a few. I send all new mothers out there reading this my love. You are all heroes!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my friends and I had a week, I think we’d start with the ride of Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier, then looking for cute shops, antiquing, vintage thrift shopping Hollywood, and definitely a sunset from the Griffith Park Observatory. I’d take museum lover to LACMA, the Getty Museum, or the Broad, and wine lovers for an overnight trip to the Santa Ynez Valley, maybe to Solvang for a wine tour. I’d take sea lovers to Newport Beach for some whale watching, and nature lovers to one of the many hiking spots the LA Area has to offer. Food lovers get a taco truck! Yum!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First and foremost, I’d like to shoutout to my parents and sister Pinar, Aral, and Gamze who have supported me through the many dramatic shifts of my artistic journey. I know that being away from them to live in the wonderful city of Los Angeles will always be one of the greatest sacrifices of my life, and I love them and miss them every day. I’m going to visit them in a few weeks so I’m looking forward to that.

Second, I would like to shoutout to my charming husband Bradley Butterworth, my anchor, who has given me the abundance of love and inspiration that I have looked for my entire life. He is incredibly supportive of everything I do, is very good at keeping me balanced, and we always have fun together no matter what we’re doing. I never knew what teamwork really was until I joined forced with him, and the force is strong with him! He is also an academic and musician and I’m looking forward to collaborating with him for a lifetime.

My next shoutout is to jazz guitarist extraordinaire and my collaborator of many years Önder Focan—I would not be where I am today without his love and support. He has believed in my artistry and empowered me since the beginning of my singing career, and his belief in me continues to drive me every day. Him and his wife Zuhal are an incredible force in jazz in Turkey, running and award-winning jazz club in Istanbul, publishing Turkey’s top jazz magazine, cultivating young artists through competitions, festivals, to name a few. They inspire me daily, in their work and in their partnership and I love them dearly.

Last but not least I’d like to shout out to all of the wonderful faculty at the California Institute of the Arts, my home away from home, particularly to my friend and mentor Dr. Jacqui Bobak. Jacqui has had my back in the world of academia and beyond. She reparented my entire artistic existence by giving me the confidence to think out of the box, and she helped me see that fearless experimentation was the ticket to artistic freedom. While she was my doctoral advisor she taught me how to write (with her diligent red pen and unique handwriting) and also convinced me I could sing opera by hiring me to be in her modern opera Dada Divas. I learned how to play ukulele for that gig.

Website: www.meltemege.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meltemegemusic/

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