She studied piano at the State Conservatory of Music in Ankara. Ali completed her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Master of Arts, where she studied with David Barnett, and at the Mannes College of Music in New York with Frank Sheridan.
Graduating from Ferhunde Erkin"s class in 1958, she received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States. She holds a degree in Advanced Musical Studies from King"s College London where she was a Chevening Scholar. She produced music programmes for the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation from 1962 to 1995 and has been the regular music critique for major daily newspapers including Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, Yeni Yuzyil and Radikal.
She was the founding Artistic Director of the CRR Concert Hall in Istanbul between 1989 - 1992.
Ali has been the Musical Advisor of the International Eskişehir Festival since 1995, and Director of the Ayvalik International Music Academy (AIMA)
She is the author of seven books on music and musicians. She is the daughter of the famous author (1907–1948).
She is a member of Balkan Music Forum, Turkish representative of the International Music Council and European Music Council.
