Coriún Aharonián was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on August 4, 1940. His parents, Nubar Aharonián and Victoria Kharputlián, arrived in Uruguay in 1927 and 1928, part of the massive exodus of Armenians due to the genocide at the hands of the Turkish government at the beginning of the twentieth century. Aharonián’s early interest in music was supported by his family, and as a five-year old he began studying piano with Adela Herrera-Lerena, which lasted until 1959. From 1955–1957 and 1966–1969, he studied with the Uruguayan composer Héctor Tosar. Between 1964 and 1966 he worked on his musicological formation with Lauro Ayestarán. Aharonián received a fellowship to study at the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires in 1969–1970, but before the end of 1969 he postponed the fellowship and traveled to Europe to further his studies. With funding from the French government, he studied at the conservatory of Paris and at the Groupe de Recherche Musicale (GRM) between 1969 and 1970. With the help of another scholarship, this time from the Italian government, he studied in Venice with Luigi Nono (1924-1990). Aharonián attended the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt in 1970 and 1974. He received lessons from several composers such as Gerardo Gandini (1936-2013), Vinko Globokar (1934–), György Ligeti (1923-2005), Gordon Mumma (1935–), Folke Rabe (1935–), Christian Wolff (1934–) and Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001). With regard to his composition teachers, the strongest influences came from Héctor Tosar and Luigi Nono.