AVO

Avedis “Avo” Uvezian was an Armenian-American jazz pianist, composer and cigar manufacturer. Born in Beirut in 1926 to a family of musicians, he performed in the Middle East before moving to the United States in 1947, where he studied classical piano and composition at the Juilliard School.

Uvezian’s path into cigars began in 1983, after he smoked a Cuban cigar while in Switzerland for his daughter Karyn’s christening. Dissatisfied with its price, he took up a friend’s suggestion that they make their own cigars. He then travelled to the Dominican Republic and spent two years seeking a satisfactory production facility.

In the Dominican Republic, Uvezian met Hendrik Kelner and evaluated cigar samples. Believing that a higher payment would secure better tobacco for AVO, he offered Kelner 25 percent more than his original offer. Michael Roux advised Uvezian on attractive packaging. Sales reached 120,000 cigars in the first year and exceeded 750,000 by the third.

In 1995, Davidoff paid Uvezian an estimated $10 million for the rights to distribute his cigars. More than two million AVO cigars were sold in 1996. Uvezian died in Orlando, Florida, on March 24, 2017. AVO continued to connect its identity with his musical life through releases including the Improvisation Series and Expressions 2024; in 2026 it marked the centenary of his birth and introduced the EXPRESIVO line.