Nilgün Doğrusöz was born in 1967, in Izmir, Turkey. In 1989, she graduated from the Ege University Turkish Music State Conservatory in Izmir. Doğrusöz later lectured music at the Turkish Music State Conservatory of Gaziantep University before receiving a master’s degree in music (1993) from the Institute of Social Sciences at ITU. In 1998, she became an assistant professor at the Musicology Department of the Turkish Music State Conservatory (ITU), and in 2000 studied at New England Conservatory of Music (Boston, US). In 2001, Doğrusöz worked as a visiting scholar lecturing Ottoman/Turkish music at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Doğrusöz has received a proficiency in art (1997) degree and PhD (2008) from Istanbul Technical University. Currently she is a Professor at the Music Theory Department of the Turkish Music Conservatory at ITU, where she teaches music paleography, history, and theory of Turkish music.
In 2014, Doğrusöz founded the ITU Ottoman-Turkish Music Research Group (OTMAG). Together with her group, she worked on private archives of the leading musical figures of the 20th century. Doğrusöz currently serves as an advisor of the Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae Center at the University of Munster, Germany. She is a member of the Scientific Board of the Atatürk Culture Center, Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Atatürk Supreme Council For Culture, Language and History.