İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈilhan mimaɾˈoːɫu], March 11, 1926 – July 17, 2012) was a Turkish American musician and electronic music composer.
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.
Most of these works utilize concrete sounds, but there are also occasional electronic elements.
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)
Gluck, Bob. “Uptown and Downtown, Electronic Music and “Free Jazz”, Ankara and New York: Interview with Turkish Composer İlhan Mimaroğlu (1926–2012).” eContact! 14.4 — TES 2011: Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium / Symposium électroacoustique de Toronto (March 2013). Montréal: CEC.
Mimaroglu Discography on Folkways
Finding aid to the Īlhan Mimaroğ̆lu papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
The film reveals the life and times of the electronics composer and record producer beyond the world of music.