Career
People"s Artist of Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (1965), State Prize of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (1950), Professor. Altunyan was the student of Romanos Melikian and Spiridon Melikian. He finished the Yerevan State Conservatory, then in 1934 - the Leningrad State Conservatory.
In 1938 Altunyan founded Armenian choir, that gave performances around the world until the 1980s.
lieutenant is remembered as a "perfect illustration of the beauty of traditional Armenian music". He is buried at Yerevan"s Tokhmakh Cemetery together with Olga Altumyan.