Lakshmi Shankar
Lakshmi Shankar’s performance style is often described as mesmerizing, spellbinding her audiences with her extraordinary voice. Born in Northern India, Mrs. Shankar began training as a dancer when she was young, but was forced to stop dancing due to a serious illness, and began a singing career at the age of 25. Mrs. Shankar first […]
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 [...] Ivan Varimezov
Ivan Varimezov was born and raised in a small town in eastern Bulgaria. As a young child he began to play the most important traditional folk instrument of the country, the bagpipe, called the gaida. It consists of a melody pipe, a drone pipe, and a blow pipe, all tied into a goatskin bag. Varimezov [...] Eleanor Academia
Eleanor Academia is a master of Kulintang, the ancient gong and drum music of the Southern Philippines. She was the first “outsider” and American to be allowed in the legendary village of Kulintang masters in the ancient city of Dulawan in Minadanao, Philippines. A direct mulit (lineage holder) of recognized Philippine Kulintang master artists, Academia […]
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 [...] Mani Bolouri
Mani Bolouri is a composer and virtuoso player of the kamancheh (spiked fiddle) and gheychak (bowed fiddle). Mr. Bolouri began his musical studies at the age of ten under the guidance of his grandfather who was an ashough (a popular, traveling musician) and who taught him Armenian folk music. He has also studied with many […]