Aziz Faye
Aziz Faye was raised in the village of Medina, the nguewel (griot) suburb of Dakar, Senegal. Nguewels are oral historians, musicians, dancers, singers and storytellers. Faye is the son of Sabar (drumming) master Sing Sing Faye and protoge of percussion virtuoso Doudou N'Daye Rose. He has been playing the sabar, djembe and djun-djun drums since [...] Felipe Garcia-Villamil
Felipe Garcia-Villamil was born in Matanzas, Cuba into a well-known family of musicians and spiritual leaders. He is the master of a set of three drums called bata that are central to the Santeria cultural and spiritual traditions brought to Cuba from the Yoruba people of West Africa, synthesizing song, drumming and dance. Garcia has [...] Pejman Hadadi
Pejman Hadadi is a virtuoso Iranian tombak and daf (frame drum) player who has been hailed as "the finest Iranian percussionist living in the West" (KPFA Radio, Berkeley, CA). Hadadi began playing tombak at the age of ten under the masters of the instrument Asadollah Hejazi and Bahman Rajabi. In 1990, upon immigrating to the [...] Ciro Hurtado
Ciro Hurtado is a Peruvian guitarist/composer who has been actively performing since the early 1970s as a soloist and as a member of various groups in Peru, Mexico, Cuba, Europe and the United States. He studied in Peru with guitar master Augusto Portugal. Hurtado is currently the musical director and has produced several albums for [...] Radha Prasad
Radha Prasad was born and raised in India and taught himself to play the bamboo flute at an early age. He studied for 18 years as an apprentice to Pandit Hariprasad Chaurais, India’s foremost flutist. He has toured extensively throughout India, Europe and the United States. He moved to the U.S. in 1992, and has […]
Katsuko Teruya
Katsuko Teruya began studying kutuu (Okinawan koto, a stringed instrument), at the age of 18 under master Nae Kochi of the Naha Koyokai in Japan. Katsuko moved to Hawai'i in the mid-1950s, and earned a Senior Teaching Certificate in 1965. In 1975 she established the Hawai'i chapter of the Teruya Shokyoku Kenkyukai. She has served [...] Mai Lee Vue
Mai Lee Vue was born in Laos. She is a master of kwv txhiaj (pronounced "kew tsee ya"), the sung poetry of the Lao-Hmong, and also performs on the hmoob raj or Hmong flute. Vue learned the flute at age eleven from her mother. Both her grandmother and mother were famous in their village for [...] Ian Whitelaw
Ian Whitelaw plays the Great Highland Bagpipe, an instrument deeply embedded in Scottish culture. His teachers include Andrew Wright, president of the Piobaireachd Society, and Robert Nicol, former piper to King George VI. Whitelaw has performed for many film and television programs, and has performed with the Chieftains at the Hollywood Bowl, at the Mormon [...] Sergio “Checo” Alonso
Sergio "Checo" Alonso is a master of the Mexican folk harp traditions from the southern coast of Veracruz and the western states of Jalisco and Michoacan, the jarocho and mariachi traditions, respectively. Alonso began studying and researching Mexican folk music in 1993 in the ethnomusicology department at UCLA, studying with Jesus Guzman of Mariachi Los [...] Mehrdad Arabi
Mehrdad Arabi plays and teaches the kamanche, the chief bowed instrument in Persian classical and folk music dating back to antiquity. A very popular instrument, the kamanche is almost always present in the make-up of all sizes of classical Persian ensembles. Arabi has been playing his instrument for more than 25 years. He studied the […]