Turgun Alimatov was an Uzbek

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

 musician.

He was born in Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

 in 1922 and lived there through the 1990s. He learned music from his father, never having taken formal music lessons, and began performing in 1939, becoming well known to the Uzbek public through musical theater as well as radio. His music has been strongly identified with sentiments of Uzbek nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

. In 1991 he toured the United States. In 1992 he was awarded the title of National Artist of Uzbekistan by the newly independent country. In 1997, he became a professor at Tashkent State Conservatoire.

He played traditional Uzbek music

Music of Uzbekistan

Central Asian classical music is called shashmaqam, which arose in Bukhara in the late 16th century when that city was a regional capital. Shashmaqam is closely related to Azeri mugam and Uyghur muqam. The name, which translates as six maqams refers to the structure of the music, which contains...

, including melodies such as the Segah and the Nawa. He performed on and composed for the sato

Sato (instrument)

The sato is a bowed tanbur, or long-necked lute, now rare, played by performers of Tajik-Uzbek classical music....

, dutar

Dutar

The dutar is a traditional long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran, Central Asia and South Asia...

and tanbur

Tanbur

The term tanbūr can refer to various long-necked, fretted lutes originating in the Middle East or Central Asia. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "terminology presents a complicated situation. Nowadays the term tanbur is applied to a variety of distinct and related...

.

On December 17, 2008 Turgun Alimatov died at the age of 86.