Berkant Gençkal was born in 1977 in Kubrat. In 1982 his family moved from Razgrad to Sofia to avoid the governmental assimilation pressures on Turks. He was initiated to music by playing the piano with his father. 

 

In 1989 his family immigrated to Turkey and he received his high school diploma from İzmir Anatolian Fine Arts Lycee. While working with Nergis Şakirzade, he produced his first attempts at composition. In 1995 he entered the Theory and Composition Department of Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts. There he studied harmony under Zarife Bakihanova and composition under Elhan Bakihanov.

 

In 2000, he received an honourable mention in the symphonic composition section of The Young Musician of the Year competition of the British Council for his Suite for Piano – Percussion and Strings. In the same year he attended the workshops of John Corrigliano at the Royal Northern College of Music in England. Virgin Stories received the second prize of the 4th Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı National Composition Contest.

 

Between 2002 and 2004, he was in Holland on an Eczacıbaşı and Schuurman&Schimmel scholarships and studied composition under Peter-Jan Wagemans and electronic music under Réne Uylenhoet in the Rotterdam Conservatory. His work 2 Views Orient was performed in Rotterdam within the activities of “The Unanswered Question”; at the Stuttgart 2006 ISCM Festival and in İstanbul in the 4th Mediterranean Contemporary Music Days. His Suite Thrace received the first prize in the 6th Nejat Eczacıbaşı National Composition Contest of 2006. Since 2007 he has been making his DMA in ITU-MIAM under Michael Ellison and Robert Reigle.  In 2013 he graduated from the institution under the supervision of Prof. Şehvar Beşiroğlu.

 

He is married with Hasene Mutlu and having son named Ender.