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 studied musicology at Columbia University under Paul Henry Lang and composition under Douglas Moore.
[3] During the 1960s he studied in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Center under Vladimir Ussachevsky[4] and on occasions worked with Edgard Varèse and Stefan Wolpe.
[5] In the same year he collaborated with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard on an anti-war statement, Sing Me a Song of Songmy.
[6] Albums for solo piano produced by İlhan Mimaroğlu under the Finnadar label: Most of these works utilize concrete sounds, but there are also occasional electronic elements.