Born in  Mersin, a Mediterranean city in Southern Turkey, his family moved to Istanbul in 1971. He was introduced to music by his mother, who was a ballet dancer before her marriage. He started private piano lessons with Hülya Saydam in 1980, his first compositions appeared in 1981. He entered at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory's composition department in 1984. Became a student of Erçivan Saydam (harmony and counterpoint), Adnan Saygun (composition, modal music and fugue) and Afşar Timuçin (history of thinking, literature and aesthetics). After his graduation in 1991, he was appointed as an instructor in the same institution. Between 1991-96 he was a student in the composition class of İlhan Usmanbaş; earned his master's degree in 1994, pursued qualification in arts studies until 1996. From 1996 to 1999 he studied at Boston University with Lukas Foss and Marjorie Merryman. Upon finishing his doctoral studies at Boston University, he returned to Turkey and began to teach composition at his native institution, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory in Istanbul. At present he is a faculty member in the same institution.