Her work focuses on the cultural politics of melancholy in Ottoman-Turkish and Islamic musical practices. Dr. Gill-Gürtan is a kanun (Middle Eastern trapezoidal zither) player committed to the study and performance of the Turkish classical music, a genre of music developed in courts of the Ottoman Empire (1453-1923) and Mevlevi Sufi institutions. Dr. Gill-Gürtan has performed kanun on radio and television programs and concert halls in Turkey, the United States, and for the European Union in Brussels.