His father, an Andalusian of Sephardic Jewish descent, had been born in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, while his mother had Andalusian-Castilian origins.
[1] He originally studied architecture, but abandoned this in favour of a musical career, initially as a pianist.
Around this time he founded the "Groupe Zodiaque", which fought against prevailing musical dogma.
[1] Ohana's output includes the choral works Office des Oracles and Avoaha (1992), three string quartets (1963, 1980, 1989), and two suites for ten-string guitar: Si le jour paraît... (1963) and Cadran lunaire (1981–82), as well as a Tiento for six-string guitar (1957).
[4] Ohana rarely composed for large symphony orchestra: Synaxis (1966), Livre des Prodiges (1979) and T'Harân-Ngô (1974).