Turgun Alimatov (Тургун Алиматов, 20 January 1922 – 17 December 2008) was a musician from Uzbekistan. He played traditional Uzbek music, including melodies such as the Segah and the Nawa. He performed on and composed for the sato, dutar and the tanbur. His music has been strongly identified with sentiments of Uzbek nationalism.

Alisher Alimatov is Turgun Alimatov's son.

Turgun Alimatov was born in Tashkent and lived there through the 1990s. He never took formal music lessons, instead he learned music from his father and by listening to music on records and radio. In doing so, he broke with traditions and developed his own style, despite scepticism from older musicians. He learned the dutar at the age of nine and the tanbur at the age of 15. He began performing in 1939, becoming well known to the Uzbek public by playing violin at Tashkent's Muqumi Thetare and joining the Tashkent radio station in 1948 where he performed in a succession of ensembles until 1982.

Alimtaov is solely responsible for reviving the art of playing the sato (bowed tanbur), as it had completely died out in Uzbekistan for a number of decades when he took it up in 1957. Thus he had never heard any examples of sato playing, instead he was inspired by listening to Indian music on short wave radio.

Like most Uzbek musicians, Alimatov's played shorter folk melodies that are derived from lengthy classical maqam. However, he distinguished himself by playing folk melodies in a classical style.

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. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.