Centennial Celebration of İlhan Mimaroğlu — His Music and Legacy

About the Programs

Title: İlhan Mimaroğlu: Centennial Celebration of His Music and Legacy

Dates: April 11–12, 2026

Venue: Yeldeğirmeni Kültür ve Sanat Merkezi, Istanbul

Program Currator: Dr. Ayşegül Durakoğlu

[LMGlobal.Org – New York] To mark the 100th anniversary of İlhan Mimaroğlu’s birth, this two-day event celebrates the life, music, and avant-garde vision of one of Turkey’s most groundbreaking composers and electronic music pioneers. Through concerts, film screenings, and discussions, we honor Mimaroğlu’s artistic legacy and his profound influence on modern music.

This special event aims not only to commemorate a towering figure in experimental music but also to inspire new generations of musicians, composers, and listeners. Through sound, image, and dialogue, we reconnect with the creative spirit of a true innovator — one who forever changed the way we hear and imagine music.

Program I — April 11, 2026 (19:00-21:30)

Concert & Conversation: The Sound Worlds of İlhan Mimaroğlu

An evening dedicated to Mimaroğlu’s revolutionary electronic and acoustic works, featuring live performances and rare archival sounds from his original album productions.
The program will open with an introduction by Prof. Alper Maral and Dr. Ayşegül Durakoğlu, offering insight into the composer’s artistic philosophy, innovations, and influence on 20th-century music.

Featuring:
• İmer Demirer — trumpet
• Aydın Esen — piano & jazz improvisation & electronics
• Ali Perret — piano & jazz improvisation
• Ayşegül Durakoğlu — piano, curator

Program II — April 12, 2026 (15:00-17:00)

Film Screening & Reflections: The Robinson of Manhattan Island

Venue: Yeldeğirmeni Kültür ve Sanat Merkezi

A special screening of Mimaroğlu: The Robinson of Manhattan Island (dir. Serdar Kökçeoğlu), a poetic documentary exploring the creative world of İlhan and Güngör Mimaroğlu — a story of art, love, and rebellion.

View trailer on DOC NYC →

Readings from Mimaroglu’s writings by Cem Baza
About İlhan Mimaroğlu (1926–2012)

Born in Istanbul, İlhan Mimaroğlu was a visionary composer, electronic musician, and producer whose work bridged classical composition, experimental sound art, and jazz. A Rockefeller Foundation fellow, he studied at Columbia University with Douglas Moore and Paul Henry Lang, later joining the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and teaching at Columbia’s Teachers College.

As a producer at Atlantic Records, Mimaroğlu collaborated with Charles Mingus and Freddie Hubbard, influencing generations of artists — including Frank Zappa, John Lennon, and Federico Fellini, who used his music in Satyricon (1969). A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (1971) and member of ASCAP, Mimaroğlu was both an artist and thinker who viewed electronic music and cinema as parallel art forms — “one for the ear, one for the eye.” His legacy endures as a cornerstone of 20th-century experimental music.

Participating Artists

Cem Baza- Actor & Director
Cem Baza graduated from Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory Theatre Department with Acting Degree. He moved to New York and received Masters degrees in New Media Arts and Performance Studies and Computer Science. He moved back to Turkey in 2010 and started working in the movie industry. He still works as an actor and director in various theaters and movies front and behind the camera.

İmer Demirer — Trumpet
A defining figure in Turkish jazz, İmer Demirer’s lyrical trumpet style and improvisational mastery have shaped the evolution of modern jazz in Turkey. A graduate of Mimar Sinan University, he has performed across Europe and the U.S., appearing in countless jazz festivals and collaborations with leading ensembles. “It is not necessary to waste the breath,” the master trumpeter aims to create a meaningful and lasting value with the sounds he produces.

Aydın Esen — Pianist & Composer
Internationally renowned for fusing Turkish musical roots with post-bop jazz, Aydın Esen’s virtuosity and innovation have made him one of the most distinctive pianists of his generation. A Berklee alumnus, Esen has collaborated with Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, and Miroslav Vitous, and has released influential recordings such as Anadolu, Living, Jazz City, Gramavision, and Dialogo. In 1990’s Aydin Esen toured in Japan quite extensively and recorded a very special album with Brazilian composer and guitarist Sergio Brandao Landscapes and later on in 1996 a new record x-Centrix with a clarinet player and writer Andrew Anello came out in New York.

Serdar Kokceoglu-Director, researcher, and writer. 
For many years, he has written prolifically about cinema and music. His documentary Mimaroğlu was screened at festivals like Visions du Réel, Ji.hlava, and Doc NYC, and received attention in publications such as Wire. Since 2022, he has been documenting the life of 103-year-old avant-garde composer İlhan Usmanbaş. Kökçeoğlu teaches sound, music, and documentary filmmaking at various universities and is a co-founder of the Gümüşlük Academy Film Studies event.

Alper Maral — Composer & Musicologist
Composer, scholar, and cultural organizer, Prof. Dr. Alper Maral is known for his politically and socially engaged approach to contemporary music. He contributed numerous international events—festivals, conferences, etc., founded, co-founded and directed academic or artistic associations, including YTU Electronic Music Festival, Mediterranean Contemporary Music Days and Asian Composers’ Festival. A founder of the Ankara Music and Fine Arts University’s Musicology Department, he has produced numerous international festivals and serves on boards including the ISCM and IAMIC Turkey.

Ali Perret — Jazz Pianist
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Istanbul, Ali Perret is known for his adventurous blend of jazz, funk, and electroacoustic sounds. A Berklee graduate, he has led ensembles including Istanbul Jazz Quartet, Free’Key Trio, and KOMOS Electro-Acoustic Ensemble (2025). Some of the musicians and artists he work with are Craig Harris, Ricky Ford, Lawrence Butch Morris, Ira Coleman, Thurman Barker, Francis Bourec, Arto Tuncboyaci, Erkan Ogur,Furio Di Castri,Oguz Buyukberber, Can Yucel, Tuncel Kurtiz, and Imer Demirer.His cross-disciplinary collaborations reflect his commitment to new sonic expressions.

Centennial Celebration of Ilhan Mimaroglu’s Legacy and Music

Born in Istanbul in 1926, Mimaroğlu was a composer, electronic musician, and a leading producer at Atlantic Records. Dedicating himself to music, Mimaroğlu went to New York in 1955 on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship to study musicology under Paul Henry Lang and composition with Douglas Moore at Columbia University. He was an engaged composer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and taught at Columbia’s Teachers College. As a producer at Atlantic Records he worked on albums by the likes of Charles Mingus, and also collaborated with Freddie Hubbard. Frank Zappa and John Lennon have both cited Mimaroğlu’s electronic compositions as influences, and Federico Fellini used one of his pieces in his 1969 film Satyricon. Meanwhile, he continued to produce from New York the “Contemporary Composers” program which he had initiated at Ankara and Istanbul radios, and also made jazz programs. He shared his extraordinary ideas on music and art in the articles he wrote for the dailies Cumhuriyet and Yeni Yüzyıl.

The compositions Mimaroğlu completed during his years at Columbia were intuitive in formal approach. He was more sympathetic to Pierre Schaeffer than to the serialists, noting that “particularly the idea that electronic music and cinema were in a parallel, the same thing basically. One is for the eye, the other for the ear. It is the same idea for me and for Pierre Schaeffer.” Milton Babbitt said about Mimaroglu, “I may not be too fond of his music, but I must admit it’s important. It’s beautifully crafted. It’s not always a great pleasure to listen to, but he’s an important composer, yes.” He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971. A member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), he began writing articles and essays on music in early 1990s. Ilhan Mimaroglu was featured in a documentary “The Robinson of Manhattan Island,” by Serdar Kokceoglu, that mirrors his life and music as well as the story of his creative relationship with his wife Gungor Mimaroglu in 2020. Mimaroglu passed away of pneumonia in 2012, in New York City.

About the Program: The centennial celebration will feature his compositions, both electronic, chamber, and solo piano works that will be performed by pianist Aysegul Durakoglu. A close friend of Mimaroglu, Durakoglu has rehearsed with the composer, and performed and premiered most of his piano works throughout the United States and his native Turkey. Mimaroglu’s close friends and colleagues who witnessed his musical and personal journey will be invited to share their experiences about the composer as well.

About Aysegul Durakoglu: Juilliard-trained, Aysegul Durakoglu is a performer with versatile interests and a repertoire that encompasses both the earliest and contemporary styles. Since her highly acclaimed New York Debut Recital at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, where Bernard Holland of the New York Times described her musicality “impeccable like nothing false or artificial but naturally come by.” Aysegul has concertized widely as a soloist and chamber musician both nationally and internationally, and curated chamber music programs featuring the works of Turkish, Sephardic, and American composers’ music with her ensemble, Musica Mundana. After receiving her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, Aysegul earned a Ph.D. at New York University.
She is currently serving is a Professor of Music at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. She has released solo albums, Dances through the Keyboard, Debussy’s Piano Etudes, Alla Turca, and she was featured in a documentary film about the Turkish-American composer, Ilhan Mimaroglu-Robinson of Manhattan at the New York Film Festival in 2021. In 2022, she published an anthology with her colleagues on the philosophy and music of Friedrich Nietzsche and has been presenting lecture-recitals on Nietzsche’s piano compositions throughout the States, Canada, and Europe. Recently, she has presented lectures at the 25th Philosophy Congress in Rome, Italy; University of Arts in Berlin and Goethe Museum in Weimar, Germany on the music and philosophy of Nietzsche.
Documentary film on Mimaroglu’s life and legacy:
The Robinson of Manhattan Island
https://www.docnyc.net/film/mimaroglu-the-robinson-of-manhattan-island/

Live Performance of Ilhan Mimaroglu ve Aysegul Durakoglu on Nazim Hikmet’s poem: “I want to be mechanized” at Kay Play House, New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VlIs8pSmSc&list=RD3VlIs8pSmSc&start_radio=1

Related:

Dedicated To: İlhan Mimaroğlu‘s 87th Birthday (March 11)
https://vimeo.com/61979622

İlhan Mimaroğlu: Outstanding Warrants:
https://www.lightmillennium.org/spring01/mimaroglu_warrants.html

İlhan Mimaroğlu: Lost And Found
https://www.lightmillennium.org/winter_02/mdede_mimaroglu.html

A dream about the Mardins
https://www.lightmillennium.org/2005_15th/imimaroglu_the_mardins.html

Bir Kelime Sihirbazi – İlhan Mimaroğlu: Geldim, Gördüm, Geçtim, Gittim
https://www.lightmillennium.org/winter_02/isikbinyili_kis_02/bu_imimaroglu_sihirbaz.html