Cem Esen was born in Adana in 1997. He began his piano education with Can Çoker at the Adana State Conservatory, where he studied for seven years.

Since 2010, he has been studying at the Istanbul State Conservatory with Prof. Metin Ülkü. He has participated in many workshops and master classes with Stefan Kovacevich, Prof. Andrej Dutkievich, Peter Florian, Gülsin Onay and Emre Şen. He performed Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major” with Çukurova Symphony Orchestra in 2009 and with Bursa Symphony Orchestra in 2010. He was awarded second place at the 2010 “International Pera Piano Competition” as well as at the “National Chopin Piano Competition” in the same year. He was a finalist in the 2011 “International Chopin Piano Competition” in Jelenia Gora in Poland. In 2012, having won first prize at the “National Adnan Saygun Piano Competition”, he performed Chopin’s “First Piano Concerto in E Minor” with Çukurova Symphony Orchestra and Izmir Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, Esen participated at theAntalya Piano Festival.

In 2013, along with being awarded with third prize at the “International Delphi Games” in Kazakhstan and third prize at the “International Maria Herrero Piano Competition” in Spain, he also won the “Young Musicians on World Stages” scholarship. In 2014 he won the special prize “For original interpretations’’ at the “International Piano Competition” in Estonya. Esen, was awarded with the “ArtEZ Conservatory Prize’’ at the “International Young Musician Piano Competition” in the Netherlands.

In 2018, he was invited to give a recital at the Sofia Music Festival. Esen, who also published own compositional works, has released 83 of his compositions so far. There are 20 compositions in opus style.

 He also wrote several Turkish songs, mostly for Soprano and Tenor. In 2019-2020, the albums Tragic Lieds and Evening Sun Lieds were released with the performances of Ayşe Ece Güneşşen and Alp Utku.

 In 2020, he has recorded his 1st Flute Sonata with flutist Cem Önertürk and has released it as a single. He founded Portemento Edition in 2020. As a result, the scores of Turkish composers began to be published all over the world on the online platform.

 He has participated at masterclasses of Peter Florian, Andrej Dutkievich, Gülsin Onay, Stefan Kovacevich, Ludmil Angelov, Jun Kanno, Johann Schmith and Diana Anderson.

Since 2015, Esen is continuing his studies at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik with Roland Krüger. 

Esen was a scholar of the “Young Musicians on World Stages” system, initiated and mentored by Güher and Süher Pekinel.