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Udi Hrant Kenkulian, often referred to as Udi Hrant or as Hrant Emre was an oud player of Ottoman classical music, and a key transitional figure in its transformation into a contemporary style of popular music. He was an ethnic Armenian citizen of Turkey who spent most of his life in Turkey and wrote most of his lyrics in Turkish. He concurrently composed and performed in Armenian as well, although to a much lesser degree. Kenkulian recorded numerous sides in the United States and Europe during his travels in the mid-20th century. As an oud player, he was a major innovator, introducing left-hand pizzicato, bidirectional picking, double stops, and novel tunings. According to Harold G. Hagopian, he was most respected for his improvisational taksim. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udi_Hra...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)
