Born in Ankara in 2006, İlayda Afşar began her musical education at the age of ten with the oboe, quickly developing a strong connection with the instrument. She received her initial training at the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts of Bilkent University in Ankara, where she was an active member of the Bilkent Youth Symphony Orchestra, participating in numerous concerts and projects. During this period, she studied with Associate Professor Selçuk Akyol, Viktoriya Tokdemir and Ogün Koyunoğlu, developing both her technical foundation and musical identity.

In 2022, Afşar was admitted to the Musica Mundi School in Belgium, where she completed her secondary education in 2025. As part of the Cambridge A Level Music programme, she undertook intensive studies in solo performance, chamber music, composition and conducting, working with Professor Karel Schoofs and Louis Baumann. During this time, she performed extensively in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in solo, chamber music and orchestral settings; she was invited as a soloist to the Amsterdam Grachten Festival and the Arte Amanti Festival in Belgium. In June 2025, she performed Antonio Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto in A minor under the direction of Leonid Kerbel. She was also selected, through auditions, to appear as a soloist with the İzmir State Symphony Orchestra in a special concert marking the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day on 15 May 2026.

Afşar has participated in masterclasses at the Wolfgang Sawallisch Musikakademie, Sondershausen Masterclass, the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and the Steinfurt Sommerakademie. Within these programmes, she had the opportunity to work with internationally renowned musicians such as Stefan Schilli, Washington Barella, Ivan Podyomov, Luk Nielandt, Lajos Lencsés, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, François Leleux and Dominik Wollenweber. In 2024, she was awarded first prize at the regional finals of the Princess Christina Competition in the Netherlands.

Having received offers from the Mozarteum University Salzburg, the Royal Conservatory of Belgium and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin for her undergraduate studies, Afşar has been pursuing her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin since the winter semester of 2025. She is currently studying in the class of Professor Dominik Wollenweber, principal cor anglais of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.