Turkey’s first female jazz pianist, composer and arranger Nilüfer Verdi was born in Istanbul, as a daughter of German painter Liselotte Auer Verdi and percussionist Nejat Verdi. She started music at a young age with private piano lessons. After high school, she continued her education at Berklee College of Music and New York New School where she worked with Jack Reilly, Ray Santisi, Bob Winter, Billy Pierce and Alex Ulanowsky.

After returning to Turkey, she played in various jazz clubs with esteemed jazz artists of the time, participated in Istanbul, Ankara, Eskişehir, Alanya, Yapı Kredi, Akbank Jazz Festivals. She also gave concerts in various countries such as Germany, China, USA and Canada. She lectured on piano and orchestra at Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul Music Academy, Modern Music Academy (MMA) and Bahçeşehir University and trained many students.

Verdi has released three albums of his own compositions, Mânâ (1997) and İzhar (2007), as well as Knidost (2016), a collection of Turkish folk songs with Ülkü Aybala Sunat and Apostolos Sideris. In 2022, she released the single ‘Talk to me’ in collaboration with Erdal Kızılçay and Duygu Soylu.