I am an instrumental pedagogue, music therapist, music geragogue, community music facilitator and a historical oboist. The order of my educational profile was chosen at random, as I don't like to be labelled. I studied at the music universities in Mannheim, Hamburg and Trossingen, supported by the German National Academic Foundation. I am currently finishing my research project at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt with the topic: ‘Music programmes in Uchtspringe (Saxony-Anhalt) psychiatric hospital: Conditional factors for strengthening resources and promoting participation, social learning and cultural education’.  My workplace, a forensic clinic, is also my research setting.  I spent many years abroad., was a lecturer in Istanbul at the Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ) State Conservatory of Turkish Music (TMDK) and solo oboist in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra at the Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria, Egypt. My professional biotopes are the more unusual places and the topics I deal with academically are off the beaten track and at the interfaces of the various musical disciplines. 

Topics that particularly fascinate me are cultural education and participation in the context of custodial measures, music and social justice, as well as research into classical Arabic and Ottoman music therapy and the transfer of receptive and active methods from Şifahane and Bimaristan to contemporary therapy settings. I work intensively with the effect of Modi, Makâm or Raga on body, mind and soul and give a lot of space in my work to what can more or less be summarised under the generic term sound therapy, far away from any Eurocentric view. This also applies to the combination of spirituality, music and therapy. 

As a musician and researcher, I have won various national and international prizes and awards. In 2024,  my work was honoured with the Correctional Excellence Award from the International Corrections & Prisons Association (ICPA) in 2024. I received it for innovative music programmes for inmates that fulfil the fundamental right to cultural education and participation. This is the first time that the ICPA has presented an award in the field of music. The ICPA, based in Brussels, has United Nations (UN) consultative status for the promotion of professional correctional services and supports global standards and guidelines to ensure that the rights and welfare of prisoners are respected and protected.  I strongly believe in social change through music and this award, which promotes humanitarian engagement, makes me happier than any award I have won for my artistic performance.