İlhan Usmanbaş

• Name — İlhan Usmanbaş • Born — 23 October 1921 • Birthplace — Istanbul, Ottoman Empire • Died — 30 January 2025 • Place of death — Istanbul, Turkey • Resting Place — Zincirlikuyu Cemetery • Education — * Ankara State Conservatory • Istanbul State Conservatory • Occupation — * Composer • Academic teacher • Awards — State Artist

Born in Istanbul on 23 October 1921, Usmanbaş grew up in Ayvalık. When he was twelve years old, his elder brother gave him a cello, and İlhan began to teach himself to play. After moving back to Istanbul, he studied the cello seriously. His maths teacher, a lover of music, advised Usmanbaş to give up the career that he had planned for himself: "We have enough engineers in Turkey. You should be a composer instead." After graduating from Galatasaray High School in 1941, Usmanbaş entered first the Faculty of Letters at Istanbul University to study philosophy, but switched to the Conservatory of Istanbul where he studied harmony with Cemal Reşit Rey and cello with Sezai Asal. In 1942, he transferred to Ankara State Conservatory, where he went on to study in the Department of Musical Composition, under members of the Turkish Five – Rey, Ahmet Adnan Saygun, Hasan Ferit Alnar, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, and Necil Kazım Akses – and David Zirkin. While he was still a student, he composed his first orchestral work Little Night Music (1946), inspired by Mozart. At the time, he discovered the score of Alban Berg's Wozzeck in the library, and started to study and perform the works of other contemporary composers. In 1948, Usmanbaş graduated in composition from Ankara State Conservatory. In 1952, he was among the founders of the Helikon Derneği, an association named after the Greek mythological Mt. Helicon, to promote arts like visual arts and music. The same year, he went to the United States on a UNESCO scholarship, where he came under the influence of American pioneers of new and experimental music. He studied in Tanglewood and Bennington with Luigi Dallapiccola. In 1955, he received the Paul Fromm Award.

Usmanbaş married the soprano Atıfet (born 1923) in 1948. She died on 3 February 2022 at the age of 99 in a nursing residence and where they had lived for eleven years at the time. İlhan Usmanbaş died on 30 January 2025 at the age of 103. He was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery following a memorial ceremony held at the Atatürk Cultural Center.