Dior Violin: that’s the online persona of Mr Mukhammadyor Tulaganov (Music ’18). As you scroll through his social media feeds — with close to a half million followers across platforms — it’s easy to forget that it all began with a six-year-old who fell in love with a violin after seeing it in a movie.
Today, the 30-year-old’s feeds pay homage to that early love, with clips of him playing anime themes, film scores, TikTok trends and pop ballads. By doing so, he is reaching new, younger audiences who might never set foot in a concert hall or be mesmerised by the beauty of classical music. This is, in many ways, his mission: to bring classical music into the everyday scroll of Gen Z and beyond. And he does this while holding a full-time role as Head of Violin at Asia Music School.
Long before the algorithms found him, however, Mr Tulaganov was a boy in Uzbekistan who simply refused to stop asking for a violin. “Nobody in my family was musical,” he said. “I saw this movie, and there was a violin, I loved it… and I just kept asking.” He eventually found a teacher who pushed him hard —competitions every year from the age of seven, endless hours of practice — but in a country where music was seen as merely a hobby, his future still felt uncertain. Everything changed when he won a competition that paid for his music college tuition. “After that, my mum said, ‘Okay, I’ll support you all the way. Just go.’”
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
The “go” turned out to be Singapore. At 16, he heard about the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST) from a senior. A beautiful campus, full scholarships, free instruments — it sounded unreal, so he practised “day and night” for the audition. When he arrived in Singapore in 2015, he knew exactly three English phrases: ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’ and ‘I love you’. YST’s intensive language classes were “brutal,” he recalled, “but they worked.”
Life at YST was rigorous — morning practice before 9am classes, chamber music, lessons, rehearsals, then more practice until 11pm. Yet it also expanded his world. Surrounded by classmates from China, Russia, Malaysia, Germany and beyond, he began to see music not as a narrow path, but as an international language that could carry him further than he had imagined.
After a brief stint with an orchestra in Vietnam, Mr Tulaganov returned to Singapore and started teaching. But another part of his life was quietly taking shape online, sparked by advice from the late Dr Marc Rochester, a YST Senior Lecturer: “You have to risk something you believe in.” Posting the first videos was nerve-racking. “You think, what if my friends judge me? What if there are no views?” he shared. But he persisted — sometimes uploading two or three times a day — and slowly discovered what resonated with audiences: violin covers of trending film and game music.
He is clear-eyed about why his channels grew: luck, certainly, but also consistency, timing and a willingness to meet audiences where they already are. “When orchestras stage Harry Potter or Final Fantasy, the shows sell out,” he notes. “A Shostakovich symphony is a harder sell. Pop culture isn’t lowering the bar — it’s a way in.”
His goal is simple: make the violin feel accessible, familiar, and even joyful to people who might otherwise never encounter classical music.
CLASSIC VS AI
Mr Tulaganov knows the music world is changing fast. From robot violinists to AI tools that can compose full scores in seconds, the landscape he trained for has been completely transformed. Instead of resisting, he chooses to lean in. “I’m excited and terrified at the same time… we’re the generation that gets to witness this. I don’t want to be left behind,” he said. To him, AI isn’t the enemy — it’s the next frontier. And just as music once opened the door to a new world for him, he believes technology may open the next one.
COMING FULL CIRCLE
Today, Mr Tulaganov balances a demanding teaching schedule with regular performances and a thriving digital presence. He plays on several instruments — including a 19th-century Italian violin — but admits that most of his online audience first discovered him through a S$100 violin he bought for outdoor gigs. “It’s not really the violin,” he said. “It’s the work.”
Despite having travelled widely across the US, Europe and East Asia, he calls Singapore “the best country to live in” and has applied for permanent residency here. He volunteers regularly, delivering food to seniors and helping at community events — small ways, he says, of giving back to the place that gave him a future. But as expected, his contributions also have a musical element. “They enjoy hearing the violin and get very excited when I play.”
In a way, the seniors aren’t that different from his youngest students: both light up when the music starts and remind him why he picked up the violin in the first place — and why he’ll probably never put it down.
IN TEMPO WITH DIOR VIOLIN
Your favourite composer?
Mozart. “He was a genius on another level. If he had lived to 70 or 80, he’d probably be the most incredible composer who ever lived.”
And your favourite film composers?
“Hans Zimmer and John Williams — both brilliant composers. People don’t realise how much they’ve shaped society — Harry Potter, Batman, Lord of the Rings… these are all from them.”
A piece you think everyone should start with?
“Something simple and famous: Schubert’s waltzes, Shostakovich’s Waltz No. 2, Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. Beethoven’s 9th. Just start there — if you like it, go deeper.”
What do your students request the most?
“K-pop, anime and Christmas music. Adults always ask for the hardest pieces. They say, ‘Please torture me.’”
