Born in 1970 in Ankara, where he pursued his musical studies, he went on to study at the Robert Schumann Institute in Düsseldorf with David Levine, then from 1992 to 1995 he attended the Berlin Conservatoire. In 1994, he won the Young Artists International Auditions, which launched his international career.
At the invitation of some of the greatest orchestras – the Orchestre National de France, the BBC Philharmonic, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic – and festivals around the world, he has toured Germany, Italy, Israel, the United States, China, Japan and South Africa. His chamber music partners are Yuri Bashmet, Maxim Vengerov and Patricia Kopachinskaya.
As a composer, he wrote “Black Hymns” at the age of 16, created his concerto for piano and violin in 1991 with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, his second concerto for piano (Silk Road) in Boston, his oratorio Nazim in 2001, his third concerto in 2002 with the Orchestre National de Radio France, his oratorio Requiem for Metin Altiok in Istanbul in 2003 and his fourth concerto for piano in Lucerne in May 2005. His discography includes Rhapsody in Blue and Variations on I got Rhythm by Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur, sonatas by Beethoven, a transcription of The Rite of Spring for one piano, four hands, Black Earth and a documentary produced by Arte in 2005.
