Born in 1980 at La Louvière, Belgium, Emre Gültekin has come to specialise in the saz (the name given to instruments of the Turkish lute family). He learned saz from his father Lütfü Gültekin; subsequently, he worked with a number of teachers such as Talip Özkan and Mustafa Karaçeper. He, his father and his brother now make up the ensemble Gültekinler: their most recent album was released in 2008 on the Kalan Müzik label.
Emre has collaborated with numerous musicians of wide-ranging origins, such as Dadmehr (Iran), Malick Pathé Sow (Senegal), Goran Bregovic (Serbia) and many others. Currently he is broadening his musical activity to encompass film music composition as well along side Emre teaches saz at Music Academy, Genk.