İlhan Mimaroğlu
İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu (ˈilhan mimaɾˈoːɫu, March 11, 1926 – July 17, 2012) was a Turkish American musician and electronic music composer.
Also recorded as Ilhan Mimaroglu
İlhan Mimaroğlu
- Name
- İlhan Mimaroğlu
- Born
- 11 March 1926
- Birthplace
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Died
- 17 July 2012
- Place of death
- Manhattan, New York, U.S.
- Occupation
- Composer
- Nationality
- Turkey
- Fields
- contemporary classical music
- Education
- Columbia University · Galatasaray High School
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Languages
- Turkish
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu (ˈilhan mimaɾˈoːɫu, March 11, 1926 – July 17, 2012) was a Turkish American musician and electronic music composer.
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Note VALÉORINE
İlhan Mimaroğlu (1926–2012) was a composer and musician, of Turkish nationality. The composer was born in Istanbul and died in Manhattan. İlhan Mimaroğlu was educated at Columbia University and Galatasaray High School.
The work spans contemporary classical music. Languages used include Turkish. Honours include Guggenheim Fellowship.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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wikidata · Q8080086 · wikipedia · İlhan Mimaroğlu
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — İlhan Mimaroğlu • Born — 11 March 1926 • Birthplace — Istanbul, Turkey • Died — 17 July 2012 • Place of death — Manhattan, New York, U.S. • Origin — Turkish • Genre — Contemporary, Electronic • Occupation — Composer • Label — * Finnadar • Atlantic Records
Biography
Biography
He was born in Istanbul, Turkey, the son of the famous architect Mimar Kemaleddin Bey depicted on the Turkish lira banknotes, denomination 20 lira, of the 2009 E-9 emission. He graduated from Galatasaray High School in 1945 and the Ankara Law School in 1949. He went to study in New York supported by a Rockefeller Scholarship. He studied musicology at Columbia University under Paul Henry Lang and composition under Douglas Moore. He published articles in the Forum magazine in the 1950s. During the 1960s, he studied in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Center under Vladimir Ussachevsky and on occasions worked with Edgard Varèse and Stefan Wolpe. His notable students included Ingram Marshall. He worked as a producer for Atlantic Records, where he created his own record label, Finnadar Records, in 1971. In the same year he collaborated with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard on an anti-war statement, Sing Me a Song of Songmy. He also was the producer for Charles Mingus’ Changes One and Changes Two, and contributed to the soundtrack of Federico Fellini's Fellini Satyricon. He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition in 1971. İlhan Mimaroğlu died of pneumonia in 2012.
For acoustic instruments
For acoustic instruments
Albums for solo piano produced by İlhan Mimaroğlu under the Finnadar label: • Meral Guneyman plays the piano music of Frank Bridge, Anton Webern and Abel Decaux “one of year’s five best” (Fanfare Magazine, Peter Rabinowitz) • September Moon, a Nocturnal Seascape for orchestra • Antistrophes for flute and piano • Deformations for clarinet and piano • Idols of Perversity for solo viola and string ensemble (1974) • Monologlar (Monologue) for clarinet and viola (1997) • Monologue I for unaccompanied clarinet • Monologue II for unaccompanied violin • Monologue III for unaccompanied English horn • Üç parça (1952) • Pieces Sentimentales for piano • Anı ve Günce Sonatı for piano • Rosa for piano (1978) • Valses ignobles et sentencieuses for piano (World Premiere by Meral Guneyman, pianist, Merkin Hall, New York City, 1986)dedicated to Meral Guneyman • Yaylı dördüller • Yaylı çalgılar için gece ezgileri • Sessions for piano (1977) • String Quartet No.4 "Like There's Tomorrow", with voice obbligato (Janis Siegel, Vocals) • Three Pieces for Piano (a) Prelude (b) Waltz (c) Boogie (Finnadar Records) (Musiques Noires-Meral Guneyman, piano solo)
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape
Most of these works utilize concrete sounds, but there are also occasional electronic elements. • Görsel Çalışma (1965) • Agony (1964) • Preludes for magnetic tape (1966–1976) • Music for Jean Dubuffet's Coucou Bazar (1973) • Le Tombeau d'Edgar A. Poe (1964) • Intermezzo (1964) • Bowery Bum (1964) • Wings of the Delirious Demon (1969) • To Kill a Sunrise (1974) • Tract, a composition of Agitprop Music for electromagnetic tape (1975) (Folkways Records) • To Kill a Sunrise and La Ruche (1976) (Folkways Records) • The Offering for tape with pre-recorded voice (Finnadar Records)
Acoustic plus electronic sounds (Tape)
Acoustic plus electronic sounds (Tape)
• Still Life 1980 for cello and tape (Finnadar & Atlantic Records) • Music Plus One for violin and tape (Finnadar & Atlantic Records) • Sing Me a Song of Songmy (1971) • Immolation Scene for voice and tape (1983) (Finnadar & Atlantic Records)
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Istanbul.
Birth place
Manhattan.
Death place
Where the work is held
Collections and holdings
Institutional holdings are recorded as follows.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Columbia University Libraries. İlhan Mimaroğ̆lu Papers, 1926-2012.
- 2.Turkish Cultural Foundation. Istanbulive4 Brings Turkish Music to New York.
- 3.Bora Gürdaş. Bilge Karasu'nun Forum dergisinde yayımlanan sanat yazıları (1954-1959). RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi. 20. 296–309. 2020. 10.29000/rumelide.791646.
- 4.Bob Gluck, “Uptown and Downtown, Electronic Music and ‘Free Jazz’, Ankara and New York: Interview with Turkish Composer İlhan Mimaroğlu (1926–2012).”
- 5.radiOM.org (Other Minds Archive). Interview with İlhan Mimaroğlu of Finnadar Records by Charles Amirkhanian. October 10, 1975.
- 6.Peter Keepnews. İlhan Mimaroğlu, Composer and Producer, Dies at 86. The New York Times. July 18, 2012.
References
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References
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This entry is compiled from 4 catalogued sources across 4 independent registers. The registers consulted are Crossref registry, Wikidata, Internet Archive and Wikipedia. Every statement above is held against the register that stated it; where the registers are silent, the entry is silent.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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