Arto Tunçboyacıyan

Arto Tunçboyacıyan — Biography

Arto Tunçboyacıyan was born on August 4, 1957 in Istanbul to a shoemaker father, in a family of Armenian descent, and turned to traditional Anatolian music while still a child. At eleven he began performing alongside his elder brother, the musician Onno Tunç, and in 1981 he settled in New York, where he went on to work with jazz musicians such as Chet Baker, Marc Johnson, Al Di Meola and Joe Zawinul, and performed regularly with Paul Winter's ensemble.

He joined an instrumental quartet led by oud player Ara Dinkjian, and after his brother died in a 1996 plane crash he released an album in his memory. In 1998 he assembled musicians in Yerevan to found and lead the Armenian Navy Band. Tracks from his album Aile Muhabbeti were used in two Turkish films, and he scored several other Turkish productions. In 2003 he launched the Serart project with System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian and contributed to a hidden track on the band's album Toxicity. In 2011 he won a Grammy as a member of Paul Winter's ensemble, and in 2017 Armenia honored him as an Honored Cultural Worker.