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Robert South, an English churchman known
for his energetic preaching and Latin poetry,
once wrote, “If there be any truer measure
of a man than by what he does, it must be
by what he gives.” When looking back at the
life of Avo Uvezian, it’s hard not to reflect on
all that this man gave to the world, and the
legacy he left behind. This was a man whose
entire life was about giving—he gave his
heart through his music, he gave his love of
life through his family, and he gave his talent
through his cigars. Avo Uvezian was a giv-
ing man, never asking for much in return,
throughout his final days.
A LIFE OF MUSIC
Even though Uvezian passed away on March
24, 2017, his loss feels unreal. Whether you
were a longstanding cigar smoker or simply
someone in the tobacco industry who only saw
Uvezian at the IPCPR show each year, Uve-
zian seemed larger than life and eternal. Uve-
zian was born in Beirut in 1926. He inherited
his passion for music from his parents, exhib-
iting it from an early age. In his teens, he trav-
eled to the Middle East as part of a jazz trio
named Lebanon Boys. After touring, Uvezian
became the official pianist to the Shah Reza
Pahlavi of Iran. It was at the urging of the
Shah that Uvezian immigrated to the United
States in 1947, hoping to continue practicing
and pursuing his music.
Once in New York, Uvezian studied clas-
sical piano and composition at the Juilliard
School of Music. While serving in the Unit-
ed States Army, he developed an interest in
cigars, a passion he pursued and explored
throughout his adult life. After serving in the
army, Uvezian continued to concentrate on
his career in music, playing with some of the
great jazz musicians in the ’50s and ’60s, and
opening a restaurant and piano bar in Puer-
to Rico in the early 1980s. While managing
the restaurant, Uvezian began to develop his
own cigars and gave them to his patrons, who
couldn’t get enough. Uvezian suddenly had
an additional career path to pursue: a cigar
connoisseur and manufacturer.
COMPOSING THE PERFECT CIGARS
What made Avo Uvezian unique was how he
harmonized his love of music with his passion
for cigars. When developing blends, he treated
each cigar like a musical symphony, under-
standing that each part of the cigar—from
the wrapper to the filler tobaccos—all need-
ed to work well together to achieve harmony.
He traveled to the Caribbean in search of the
perfect tobaccos to use in his cigars. He also
knew he needed great partners to help bring
everything together.
In an interview conducted by Davidoff for his
80th birthday, Uvezian recounted how he trav-
eled to Geneva for the christening of his daugh-
ter, and how having an expensive Cuban cigar
during the trip inspired him to create his own
quality brand. “On my very limited capital, I
started making trips to the Dominican Republic
for one year, studying, learning about tobacco,
talking to growers, and the first factory they sent
me to was Hanky [Hendrik] Kelner’s factory.”
In 1982, Uvezian partnered with master
blender Hendrik Kelner and with his help,
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