Tamara was born in Armenia and trained at Arno Babajanyan College, leaving in 1998 to seek performance opportunities in Syria. There she met fellow violinist Fadi Iskandar; they married in 2001 and built a life and a family together in Aleppo.
Her playing carries the lines of Armenian folk and liturgical tradition, shaped by years of working across Syrian, Gypsy, and international repertoire. She has taught violin and piano continuously since 1998.
The family relocated to Tucson in 2012. She now teaches at the Music and Dance Academy in Tucson, and in 2019 received the Southwest Folklife Alliance Master–Apprentice Artist Award.
Fadi was born in Aleppo, of Armenian heritage, and trained at the Arabian Institute of Music under Russian violinists who anchored its faculty. He went on to teach there himself and to direct the institute’s chamber orchestra.
Beyond the conservatory, he learned Middle Eastern music as it has always been learned — from elders, by ear, through improvisation and the patient mastery of maqam. His artistry draws on Arabic, Armenian, Syriac, Gypsy, French, Russian, Kurdish, Turkish, and Byzantine forms.
He moved to Tucson with Tamara and their family, and in 2018 received the Southwest Folklife Alliance Master–Apprentice Artist Award.