Dr. Lloyd Miller - Clarinet Dr. Miller also known to many Persians as Koroush Ali Khan  is one of the first jazz innovators who was interested in Eastern music since the 50's but did not gain fame because he left the scene in 1959 to travel through the orient and to live in Tehran. Before going on to Europe, Dr. Miller was working on Eastern music and finding ways to bring metaphysical and highly developed Eastern concepts into modal jazz. While in Europe Miller played with top jazz artists like Don Ellis (where he was inspired by Miller's Eastern concepts) and Eddie Harris including occasional appearances at the famous Blue Note in Paris where he sat in for Bud Powel to play with Kenny Clark. During his residence in Europe, Miller was prominent in the Stockholm. Frankfurt, Brussels and Paris jazz scenes and played at two major jazz festivals in Belgium. Miller's LP album Oriental Jazz released in the late 60's and the three consecutive years he won composer and other trophies at Intercollegiate Jazz Festivals indicate that he was one of first to bring Eastern music ideas to Jazz. Dr. Miller has always endeavored to retain the highest musical standards of both systems and has refrained from sacrificing either or producing a commercialized blend. Dr. Miller has spent 8 years in Iran where he recieved his PhD in Persian music which resulted in his work Music and Song in Persia being published by Curzon Press in London in 1999, he also studied with master Daryush Safvat and Karimi and also hosted his own prime-time NIRTV main network jazz show while in Tehran.

Ramin Zoufonoun - Persian Tuned Piano Ramin  was born to a family of musicians in Tehran. His strength and primary interest is in the area of improvisation on the Persian-tuned piano, and the tar. He owes much of his knowledge of Persian modal system (radif) to his father and mentor, Mahmoud Zoufonoun. He studied tar with Mahmoud Zoufonoun, Hossein Alizadeh and Mohammad Reza Lotfi. Ramin has studied music theory and harmony with Anna Pokleswski and has also explored possibilities within the realm of electronic music.

Shirzad Sharif - Tonbak & Daf Shirzad was born to a highly acclaimed musical family in Iran and studied the Tonbak under the strict supervision of the renowned Ostad Bahman Rajabi. Since then he has adapted his own unique style of playing enabling him to play melodic rhythms on the Tonbak while accompanying various instruments which must be seen and heard to be fully appreciated. Shirzad is also the first Tonbak player to have researched & performed other Middle Eastern, Arabic & non-Persian rhythms on the Tonbak. Accompanying other Arabic and Indian drums he is thus the first percussionist to have connected and created a rhythmical triangle within the three ancient regions of Persia, India & the Middle East. He is also the founder of Som'ma and pioneer of avant-garde Persian music which uses Persian classical music modes and abstract avant-garde ideas!

Mahour Mellat Parast - Tar Mahour Mellat Parast was born in 1973 in Iran. He grew up in a music loving family, where his father was a musician, composer and a player of Tar, Setar, Piano and Turkish Tar. He started playing Tar at the age of 14, under the supervision of his father and in 1989, he was awarded the first rank Tar player in the Province of Gilan, Iran. Mahour also joined the Oshagh musical group at the age of 16, as their youngest player and took part in many concerts with that group throughout Iran. After his admission to Sharif University, he moved to Tahran.

At that time, along with his academic studies in Industrial Engineering, he practiced the themes of Persian music (RADIF) under the supervision of Houshang Zarif, a renowned Tar player and instructor, from 1993-1997. He also became familiar with the style of many Tar players, including Jalil Shahnaz and Farhang Sharif. Mark Deutsch - Bazantar Mark is a visionary artist with a background in non-linear mathematics, sacred systems and cosmology. As a classically trained bassist whilst studying sitar and North Indian classical music with the legendary Ustad Imrat Khan developed a breaking new instrument: The Bazantar - a five-string acoustic bass fitted with an additional twenty-nine sympathetic strings and four drone strings. The result is a remarkable instrument that weaves a mesmerizing soundscape of resonance, and evokes all the power of Western classical music with the depth and nuance of Eastern traditions.  Since the creation of the Bazantar, Mark has been performing extensively world wide, performing at the Juilliard School of Music and at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. On the collaborative side, his music has attracted an eclectic array of musicians, including the Grammy award-winning cellist David Darling; the seminal Chicago rock band Tortoise; virtuoso erhu player and principle soloist with the Beijing National Symphony Yang Ying; and jazz luminaries such as William Parker, Roy Campbell, and Hamid Drake.  Noah Waldman - Drumset / Percussion Noah a graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music plays with some of the best musicians in the area. It was at Berklee that he was exposed to different types of music such as Afro-Cuban, Jazz, Middle Eastern, Indian and the music of the African Diaspora. He was privledged to study under the direction of the late Tony Williams and other greats like Kenwood Dennard, Bobby Sanabria, Ernesto Diaz, Wayne Nauss, Ed Uribe, Oscar Stagnardo, Bernardo Hernandez and Jamey Haddad. Noah has additionaly performed with greats like Rebecca Muleon, Orestes Vilato, Larry Harlow, Edgardo Cambon, Oscar Stagnardo, Ed Kelly, Danilo Lazano....    SPONSORED BY THE: