Award-winning Turkish-American soprano Ayşegül (Ayse) Çiftçi Underhill was born in Ankara, Turkey.  She showed interest in music and unquestionable talent at a very early age, and began performing on Turkish radio at the age of eight.  She studied piano with Fenman and Statzer and graduated with a Fine Arts Degree from Robert College in Istanbul, and later advanced her musical education by receiving a Piano Performance Degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

After graduation, she began performing as a piano soloist with orchestras and giving piano recitals on the East Coast, a highlight being several special concerts at MIT and Harvard University.  She was elected to the board of the Turkish American Society of Boston and became active in the group.  When her husband, Robert Underhill, accepted a position as Professor of Linguistics at San Diego State University, they moved to California.  She continued her concertising and began her own piano studio in Del Mar.  Her own piano recitals were suspended because of an arm injury, and she returned to her vocal training.  Within a few years, she was as much in demand for her vocal recitals as she had been for her piano concerts.  Meanwhile, in curing her arm injury, she became a specialist in helping other pianists overcome injuries and fatigue.

From the very beginning of her professional career, one theme has dominated her concerts and her teaching: One World, One People.  Her musical programs always introduce music from unknown Turkish composers.  In her piano studio, she teaches piano technique, interpretation, and music theory, and she requires all her students to attend extra classes where through art slides and lectures, she instructs them about the composer's life and the history of the period in which the piece was written.  She has taught more than one thousand students from many different ethnic backgrounds.  Through interaction in these classes, the children learn to appreciate and respect cultures that differ from their own.  Her students win top prizes in competitions, and many have been accepted in prestigious universities.

In addition to serving as President of the Northern San Diego Music Teacher's Association, she has organized piano festivals and competitions which she hosts in her studio.  She founded the San Diego chapter of the American Turkish Association and continues to be very involved with its activities.  She has been unofficially named the Ambassador of Music because of her numerous appearances at fund raising benefits and gatherings.  She has performed for both the Turkish Ambassador to the United States and for the American Ambassador to Turkey.  Other programs include her repertoire of many different languages.  These recitals embrace all ethnic and religious groups and promote goodwill among all nationalities, helping them to celebrate life and their uniqueness.  She has been the principal soprano and soprano section leader for St Peter's Episcopal Church in Del Mar CA, and is presently organizing a concert series celebrating and reviving the much neglected Art Song repertoire.

Through her teaching and her personal performances, Ayse Underhill is a practicing Good Will Ambassador, bringing musical riches from older cultures to touch the hearts of the many different nationalities that make up the United States of America.  In 2001, she was honored by the Daughters of Ataturk organization as one of 18 worldwide recipients of their annual Women of Distinction awards, and she was nominated to receive an Ellis Island Medal of Honor.  Beyond these honors, she is most proud of her two American-born sons: Brian, Ph.D., who has been a consultant for Keilty Goldsmith & Co. and is now the president of his own company, The Coach Source, and Stephen, Actuarial Director for Fireman's Fund Company.  Both live in the Bay Area.  Her husband, Prof. Robert Underhill, is currently a professor of linguistics at San Diego State University.