Ohannes Tunçboyacı, better known as Onno Tunç (20 December 1948 – 14 January 1996), was a leading Armenian musician from Turkey, working mainly as a composer, arranger and a music producer. Tunç also played bass guitar and occasionally double bass, contributing to the albums of several musicians. He was one of the prominent names of Turkish pop music in the 1980s and 1990s with his arrangements. He was the elder brother of musician Arto Tunçboyacıyan.
Early years
Of Armenian descent, Onno Tunç was born in 1948 in Istanbul. His music experience started with the church choir of Harur Mangaz (Hundred students). In his first year of middle school, he had to drop out to go to work to support his family.
Born in a financially limited family, he could not afford a musical instrument although they fascinated him, until Anush ("Sweet" in Armenian), the mother of his friend Arman bought her son a guitar, and one for Onno too. Onno, a fast-learning autodidact, started a music band and soon repaid Anush.
Career
He started music by singing in church choirs. He founded a music group called "Black Stones" during his high school years. In 1965, he started his professional music career as a bass guitarist with the "Üstün Poyraz Set Orchestra". He started jazz music with Emin Fındıkoğlu's orchestra in 1967. In the following years, he increased his musical experience by working with the orchestras of Durul Gence and Süheyl Denizci. He made a name for himself with his arrangement in the 1970s. At that time, he contributed to the albums of many names including Özdemir Erdoğan, Nilüfer, Bülent Ortaçgil, Gülden Karaböcek, Ajda Pekkan, Nükhet Duru and Gökben. In 1973 he released his record "The Bracelet / Melissa". Söz Sevgilim Söz, one of Tunç's first compositions, whose lyrics was written by Çiğdem Talu, was voiced by Cömert Baykent. Many times he competed as a composer and arranger in the Eurovision Song Contest Turkey Finals. In 1978 and 1981, he represented Turkey in this contest as arranger and conductor.
Turkish pop icon Sezen Aksu met Onno Tunç and started taking lessons from Tunç after listening Nükhet Duru's song called "Seninle", which was composed by Tunç in 1981. Later, they started working together during Aksu's show at Şan Theater. After being the music director of Nilüfer'84 album, he worked only with Sezen Aksu and her orchestra for many years. The composition and arrangement of many songs written by Sezen Aksu and Aysel Gürel from the album Sen Ağlama in 1984 to the album Gülümse in 1991 was directed by Onno Tunç. The album, Sen Ağlama, triggered the rise of Turkish pop music and led to the emergence of pop music as a strong rival to Turkish Arabesque music that was monopolized in the period.
In the 90's, he was the music director of the albums by Aşkın Nur Yengi, Bülent Ortaçgil, Harun Kolçak, Nilüfer, Zerrin Özer, Zuhal Olcay and Ayşegül Aldinç. The songs composed or arranged by Tunç also took place in the albums of Asya, Yeşim Salkım, Bendeniz, Emel Müftüoğlu and Rüya Ersavcı. Before his death, he contributed to the albums of Sezen Aksu's Düş Bahçeleri and the last songs of Levent Yüksel.
He also composed the soundtracks for films such as “Ah Belinda”, “Rumuz Goncagül” etc. Besides his pop music compositions, he has a piece called "Su" for solo saxophone and orchestra. He played bass guitar in Bülent Ortaçgil's Will You Play With Me ?, Okay Temiz's Zikir, gNükhet Ruacan's Ruacan albums, MFÖ's Yalnızlık Omur Boyu and Mustafa Sandal's Beni Aglatma.
He composed 175 songs and represented Turkey in many European music contests. A very close friend of Turkish singer Sezen Aksu, he co-wrote and composed many of the songs she performed throughout her career, as well as arranging all of her albums. It was widely known that his death tipped Sezen Aksu into depression. She dedicated her album Düş Bahçeleri to Onno (and numerous songs on virtually all of her albums since).
His symphony Su was performed by the Istanbul Symphony Orchestra.
He collaborated with Hulki Aktunç and Dağhan Baydur on the Turkish entry Sevince at the Eurovision Song Contest 1978, which was performed by Nilüfer and Nazar.