Arşam Kelleciyan

Arşam Kelleciyan — Biography

Known also as Shamram Hanım, Arşam (Shamram) Kelleciyan was an Ottoman Armenian kanto singer born in Istanbul in 1870. After completing her schooling at an Armenian institution in Galata, she took to the stage, and following the end of her first marriage in 1895 she began performing alongside her cousin, the celebrated kanto singer Peruz Hanım, with touring troupes such as Kel Hasan Efendi and Komik Şevki Bey, as well as at the Millet Theatre.

From the early 1900s for roughly a quarter century, she was among Istanbul's most sought-after kanto performers, best remembered for duets with Peruz Hanım such as "Falcı Çingene." In 1909 she married cinema operator Aleksan Hagopyan, and later in her career she continued performing with Naşit Özcan's company until 1935. She died in Istanbul on March 14, 1955.