Charles Uzor was born in Udo Mbaise in Nigeria. At the age of seven, during the Biafra War, he came to Switzerland. In 1982, following his 'Matura' studies in St Gallen, he studied music in Rome followed by studies in oboe and composition at the conservatories of Berne and Zurich. In 1986 he met the oboist Gordon Hunt in Assisi and was encouraged to take up a post-graduate study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Charles Uzor received his recital diploma and a master's in composition from the University of London in 1990. He returned to Switzerland and began his dissertation on Melody and Inner Time-consciousness (finished in 2005).