Dimitar Ninov was born in Varna, Bulgaria, on May 27, 1963. He graduated from the French Language High School in his native town. In 1987, he entered the State Academy of Music Pancho Vladigerov in Sofia, where he earned master's degrees in two majors: Theory of Music (1992) and Composition (1996). Ninov studied composition with one of the most prominent Bulgarian composers, Prof. Alexander Raitchev. His graduation thesis was a Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, premiered by the Academic Orchestra in May, 1996.

From 1992-1997, Ninov was employed as a conductor of the children's choir Bonka Golemanova in Botevgrad. Between 1994 and 1999, he gave private instruction in harmony, solfege and other disciplines in Sofia, and worked as a composer and arranger in the field of popular music. In 1999, Dimitar Ninov went to the United States to pursue his doctoral studies in composition. He was employed as a teaching assistant in theory of music at the University of South Carolina, and later at the University of Texas at Austin.

In May 2003, Ninov earned his doctorate in composition at the University of Texas with Spring Symphony, a three-movement symphony for orchestra. The composer has produced a body of works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choir, voice, and piano.