Arto Tunçboyacıyan

Arto Tunçboyacıyan — Biography

Arto Tunçboyacıyan (born 4 August 1957 in Istanbul) is a Turkish-born American avant-garde folk and jazz multi-instrumentalist, percussionist, singer and composer of Armenian descent. Before settling in the United States he appeared on more than two hundred records in Europe; he went on to work with jazz musicians such as Chet Baker, Marc Johnson, Al Di Meola and Joe Zawinul. He has also collaborated with the Turkish singer Sezen Aksu and the Greek singer Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

In the 1980s he formed the instrumental quartet Night Ark with Ara Dinkjian, with whom he recorded five albums. He leads his own group, the Armenian Navy Band, and in 2003 teamed up with System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian for the project Serart. Music from his album Aile Muhabbeti (2001) was used in the films Hemşo (2001) and Mon père est ingénieur (2004), he composed the score for Le Voyage en Arménie (2006), and in Turkey he wrote music for Avcı (1997), Hemşo (2000) and Gavur Mahallesi (2014).

His elder brother Onno Tunç was also a musician, and the two collaborated on several projects. In 2017 Tunçboyacıyan was named an Honored Cultural Worker of the Republic of Armenia.