Avraam Tolmasov

Avraam (Avram, Avrom) Gavrielovich Tolmasov was born in 1956 in Samarkand into a Bukharan Jewish family. He trained in music in Samarkand under well-known Bukharan Jewish performers and became widely known in the early 1980s. He performs shashmaqom and the classical songs of Bukharan Jews, Tajiks and Uzbeks.

His work belongs to a family musical tradition: according to the New York Jewish Week (JTA), he is a son of Gavriel Tolmasov, a pioneering maqom singer, and a brother of Shmuel Tolmasov, and his uncles were students of Levicha Babakhanov, the personal singer at the court of the Emir of Bukhara.

In 1989, during the mass emigration of Bukharan Jews, he left for Israel. The 1990s were the peak of his career, as his popularity spread beyond the Bukharan Jewish community to Tajik and Uzbek audiences. In the early and mid-2000s he toured Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, EU countries and Uzbekistan, and his cassettes and CDs sold in the US, Israel, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In August 2013 he performed with Roshel Rubinov at the Shashmaqom Forever festival in Forest Hills, Queens, New York.

He sings in Judeo-Tajik (Bukhori), Tajik, Persian and Uzbek. On streaming platforms his albums Shashmaqam and Ishqi devona came out in 2020, the live collection Live Performances in 2021 and the EP of Russian songs in 2024. According to Wikipedia, he has received certificates and awards from the World Congress of Bukharian Jews, the Congress of Bukharian Jews of the USA and Canada, and the Congress of Bukharian Jews of Russia and Central Asian countries.