Charlene Adzima, Fiddler/vocalist began playing violin at age nine. She became enamored with traditional Irish music in her early teens, studying with some of Irish fiddling’s greatest masters including Liz Carroll, Seamus Connelly, Deborah Colon and Antoin MacGabhann. She has gone on to become one of the leading examples of an emerging style of Irish-American fiddle playing, winning multiple titles and awards in the top U.S. fleadhs (Irish music competitions) and has twice competed overseas in the prestigious All-Ireland Championships, the global Irish music competition. A versatile performer and singer, she has played on stage with luminaries of the likes of Liz Carroll, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, John Whelan and Teada. Her inaugural recording, “Initiation”, will be released later in 2007. She performed for FCaravan in O'Seamrog Program.
 

Geneviève Beaulieu currently resides in Gatineau, Québec and studies Odissi dance from Saveeta Sharma who is the artistic director of Upasana, the Spirit of Dance. Geneviève created The Apsaras, a dance group dedicated to the promotion of Indian classical dance in Canada. She is also a co-founder of the group MEHR ("love") with Anwar Khurshid. In 2006, she performed Odissi dance for FCaravan in Baghcha: flowers from the musical garden of the world.

Zimra (Anne Delekta) has been performing and teaching dances of the Middle East for more than 16 years. Her studies include ethnic dance styles from North and West Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Spain, India, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf; she also explores modern and fusion styles of tribal belly dance and dancing with fire. She teaches workshops regularly at festivals such as Starwood, PSG and WicCan Fest. In 2003, Anne helped to facilitate several Flamenco Barns and flamenco juergas (parties) for FCaravan and friends.

Mehmet Uğur Ekinci is a noted young player of the kanun in Turkey. He performed alongside numerous choirs and ensembles, and participated in TV programs and CD recordings. He has also carried out independent research on the historical evolution of performance and composition in Turkish music. Ekinci graduated in 2003 from Bilkent University, Ankara, with a B.A. in International Relations. In 2006, after receiving his M.A. in History from the same university, he started his doctoral education at the Ohio State University, Department of History. In 2007, he presented for FCaravan in 78 Strings: Lecture-Recital on Classical Turkish Music.

Marcia Farr is a sociolinguist and Professor of Education and English at Ohio State University. She recently published a book on language and identity in a Mexican transnational community. She has danced all her life, most recently studying flamenco with Maya Tatiana in Chicago for the past 10 years. Before that, she studied and performed Mexican folkloric dance in Mexico and Chicago. She also has studied ballet, modern, and various Latin dances. Currently Marcia is part of Lucero Flamenco, Maya Tatiana’s dance troupe, which performed at Ohio State for FCaravan in October 2005.  In 2006, she offered an ongoing class in Sevillanas for Flamenco and Multi-Arts Caravan. http://www.coe.ohio-state.edu/mfarr/

Marian Funk, Cincinnati-raised accordionist has been a mainstay of traditional Irish and European music in Central Ohio for over 15 years. In the early 90s, she was the accordion player with European dance band Kaj Mi Nuka (literally, “What, Me Worry?” in Slovenian) and she has performed solo at festivals and venues all over central Ohio: Dublin Irish Festival, Worthington Folklife Festival, Lancaster Festival, German Village Oktoberfest and First Night Columbus. She is a four time gold medalist at North American Irish fleadh competitions and plays music for feiseanna (Irish Dance competitions) all over the country. Marian specializes in dance music from all over Europe, and more than one spectator has been heard to remark, “I didn’t know the accordion could sound like that!” after a concert. She performed for Fcaravan in O'Seamrog program in 2007.
 

Maggie Green’s live shows, embracing both the music of Brazil and the great American songbook, are creating a buzz. Highlights include sold out shows in Rio de Janeiro and a television appearance in the hometown of beloved singer Elis Regina. Maggie leads her own jazz ensembles and started the bossa nova-samba group Canto Poetico. Having recorded and performed in Rio de Janeiro, Maggie worked with some of the finest musicians there. In April 2007, Maggie presented information and music from Bahia, Brazil’s culturally African infused area, in FCaravan’s Saudade da Bahia.

Mehran Jalili was born and raised in Iran, until he moved to the United States at the age 14. This was when he started studying the guitar with his uncle, an accomplished musician who was well-known in Iran. Mehran’s early musical interests were the blues and rock. He performed with many Chicago local rock bands, including “No Romeo,” which took him to Los Angeles to showcase for Electra and Virgin records. Then, he discovered flamenco, and began to study flamenco and classical guitar with Mr. Ted Rachine. Soon, Mehran would embark on many adventures to Spain, where he would learn from guitarists he admired, such as Antonio El Muneco and Juan de Madrid, and Sevilla’s Rafael Mendiola. Mehran also plays guitar for Maya Tatiana, flamenco dancer, singer and choreographer, and former member of the Jose Greco Company. They have been performing together for the past eight years. Mehran travelled to Columbus in October 2005 to perform and present a guitar workshop for FCaravan with Maya Tatiana and four of her students in Lucero Flamenco. Currently Mehran is a flamenco guitar instructor, on staff at the Old Town School of Folk Music. http://www.flamencoguitarplayer.com/

Nick Kaplan was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and currently resides in Virginia. He studied classical guitar and in 2002, he found an interest in moving to the flamenco style. He played for many Flamenco Barns in 2003 and taught lessons on rhythmic structures and guitar. He was also instrumental in the creation of the organization, and served as its treasurer for one year.

Majd Karimi was born in Yazd, Iran and started his first music lessons with his older brothers, who played Persian musical instruments. At the age of 12, he became interested in Zurkhaneh music (a form of rhythmical live music which accompanies a traditional form of group exercise and poetry reciting from the Shahnameh – one of the most famous epic texts and literary traditions in the Persian-speaking world). He then continued his studies in the field with Morshed Moradi, one of the great masters of Zoorkhaneh music. In 1978, Karimi moved to the United States to attend West Virginia University, from where he earned a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering. He moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1984, and since 1988, he has played the daf and the tombak in the Shayda Cultural and Artistic Center. That same year, he became a student of Mohammad Reza Lotfi, a master of classical Persian music, and began the study of the daf and the tonbak. Between 1993 and 1995, he studied the tar with one of the students of Maestro Lotfi. Between 1988 and 2001, while studying about the techniques of Persian music, Karimi performed in many concerts with Maestro Lotfi. Karimi is also a student of the ney, or reed flute. Since 2001, he has continued his practice and teaching of the daf and tonbak. In 2005, he presented Nava va Taraneh, a lecture-demonstration and workshop in traditional Persian music for FCaravan.

Anwar Khurshid is a devout student of Ustad Shahid Parvez, and he runs the Sitar School of Toronto in his absence. Anwar’s interest in music began at an early age.  He learnt vocal music and performed on stage very early on.  He began teaching himself flute at the age of ten.  In a few short years and under the guidance of Ustad Arif Jaffery, Anwar began performing live for Peshawar radio station.  In 1980, he began formal study of sitar under the tutelage of the late Ustad Nasirudin.  In 1985, after Ustad Nasirudin passed away, Anwar Khurshid began studying Tabla under Ustad Muhammad Tufail Khan.  Over the next four years, Khurshid would develop the strong background in tabla and keen sense of rhythm which is evident in his sitar playing to this day. He performed on the sitar in FCaravan’s 2006 program Baghcha: flowers from the musical garden of the world. http://www.sitarschool.com/anwar.html

Edward Brough Luna (Treinel Fuça Fuça, or "Luna") is a guest lecturer in dance at The Ohio State University. He is the recognized trainer of T.A.B.C.A.T. Columbus under Mestre Caboquinho, a Brazilian mestre based in Detroit, MI.
Luna's studies in Capoeira began at OSU in the year 2000. Since 2002, he has studied under the tutelage of Mestre Caboquinho, who is dedicated to the preservation of the authentic, improvisational Capoeira Angola found in Bahia, Brazil.
From 2002 to the present, he has also taught an introductory elective course in Capoeira Angola in the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University. He has also performed capoeira and its music at various venues in Columbus, and as part of the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. He has recently finished his Master's thesis, entitled Jogo de Mandinga (Game of Sorcery). In April 2007, Ed Luna and several of his T.A.B.C.A.T. students presented and discussed Capoeira in in FCaravan’s Saudade da Bahia.

Lowell Lybarger is a musician-scholar residing in the city of his birth, Lahore (Pakistan). Lowell holds an MA in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, an MLIS from Kent State University, and a PhD in musicology from the University of Toronto.  His PhD dissertation is an ethnography of the tabla players of Pakistani Panjab.  In 2004, Lowell went to Lahore, Pakistan as a UNESCO consultant in musicology for the National College of Arts and Sanjan Nagar Institute of Philosophy and Arts.  In 2006, he obtained his MLIS with a specialization in audio archiving and became a consultant for a digital preservation project at Radio Afghanistan in Kabul.  Presently, Lowell is teaching musicology at the National College of Arts in Lahore.  Lowell is an active performer of the tabla, having performed in numerous private concerts and festivals in Seattle, Toronto, Columbus, Lahore, and Islamabad. Lowell has studied the tabla from the late Ustad Shaukat Hussain of Lahore and from Ustad Akram Khan of Delhi. In 2006, Lowell performed the tabla in FCaravan programs Baghcha: flowers from the musical garden of the world and Zamzama: the poetics of Indo-Persian Art Music, in which he also presented a scholarly lecture. He served as sound and recording technician for Avaz-i Saz: Folksongs from Persia and Anatolia. http://lybarger.org/

Mónica Monte was born and raised in Toledo, Spain and has lived in Madrid for about ten years. An avid dancer, she has participated in Sevillanas and Spanish folk dance since childhood. As a doctoral student in plant sciences, she was a visiting scholar at Ohio State University from November 2002-January 2003. In this time, she participated in Flamenco Barns and also helped to launch the idea for Flamenco & Multi-Cultural Arts Caravan. She also was a visiting teacher for Sevillanas dance with Folclor Hispano.

Chan E. Park received her Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii and is currently a professor in Korean language, literature, and performance studies at Ohio State University’s East Asian Language and Literatures department. Her research focuses on the performance of p'ansori performance in transnational context, related oral/lyrical/dramatic traditions and their places in shaping modern Korean drama. She has published extensively on the theory and practice of oral narratology and other related topics, including her book Voices from the Straw Mat: Toward an Ethnography of Korean Singing (University of Hawaii Press, 2003). Dr. Park presented a lecture-demonstration on this art in FCaravan’s P’ansori: Korean Epic Vocal Art and Instrumental Music in November 2006.

Karina Polar-Cabrera is originally from Peru. A graduate student in Food Science at Ohio State University, she led a workshop in Afro-Peruvian dance for Flamenco & Multi-Cultural Arts Caravan in the spring of 2006 called Festejo!

Pablo Salcedo offered the first FCaravan program in March 2003. Andean Winds was an evening concert and daytime quena workshop in University Hall, OSU main campus. Salcedo was born in 1974 in the city of Mendoza, Argentina. He began his musical education at age 7. He made his debut as a soloist with a symphonic orchestra at the age of 17, interpreting Johan Kvandal's Flute Concerto, Carl Nielsen's Flute Concerto and André Jolivet's Flute Concert. Pablo obtained his degree (in flute) at the age of 21 from the National University of Cuyo (U.N.C.) under Lars Nilsson.His training includes more than 50 master classes in Argentina, Switzerland, and Spain, with masters such as Aurelé Nicolet, Felix Renggli, Torkel Bye, Margalit Gafni, Miguel Villafruela, Boby Martínez, Robert Dick, and Antonio Carrasqueira, among others. His repertory includes pieces for soloist with symphonic orchestra, chamber music, and Andean music, spanning a wide variety of styles. Multi-intrumentalist (Quena, Flute, Saxophone and Andean Winds), teacher and composer. Pablo's concerts and workshops incorporate the Markama Quena, transverse flute, saxophone, and other Andean wind instruments such as moxeño, siku, ocarina, anatas, erke, and quenon.

http://www.pablosalcedo.org/       http://www.pablosalcedo.com/

Stan Smith, guitarist and composer is an assistant professor of music in the Jazz Studies/Music Industry Program at Capital University in Columbus Ohio where he has been the head of the jazz/contemporary guitar curriculum since 1978. He is also on the staff of the National Guitar Workshop. As a guitarist he was a member of the Moacir Santos band in Los Angeles, and as a band leader in Columbus has accompanied various artists such as Ali Ryerson, Mark Vinci and David Amram as well as performing regionally in clubs, concerts, and festivals. In April 2007, Stan accompanied vocalist Maggie Green in in FCaravan’s Saudade da Bahia.  

Shahla Sohail is originally from Iran, and has lived in Maryland for the past twenty-two years. A children’s librarian, storyteller, and language teacher, she studies traditional Persian music as a hobby. She studied the daf with Majd Karimi for several years. She also plays the piano and learns the setar as well. FCaravan programs in which she has participated include Tan-Tana: Rhythm Workshop, Nava va Taraneh, and Avaz-i Saz: Folksongs from Persia and Anatolia.

Maya Tatiana- Internationally renowned flamenco artist Maya Tatiana has danced with major dance companies in Spain and across the United States. Maya is on staff at several studios and is featured through the Guest Teaching Series at ARCC Ballet. Maya, along with four students and guitarist Mehran Jalili offered Lucero Flamenco for FCaravan in October 2005. Maya performs regularly at Mason Sabica in Chicago and is featured in the newly released film, "American Burqa".

Hans Utter has studied intensively in India for the past 9 years inthe tradition of the Imdad Khan gharana, passed down for 7 generations, under the tutelage of Ustad Sujaat Khan, son of Ustad Viliyat Khan, the world renowned sitarist. He also holds a degree in sitar from the Benares Hindu University School of Music, where he studied with Dr. Rajman Singh. The style taught by  his guru, the gyaki ang, is based on the subtle nuances of vocal music and brings out the beauty inherent in the raga. He plays in a wide variety  of styles, from the traditional khyal based exposition of the raga, to  the romantic sounds of thumri and gazal, and folk melodies known as dhuns.  Hans has performed in the US, Canada, Europe and India. He is currently a Phd. candidate in Ethnomusicology at OSU. He performed the sitar and gave a scholarly lecture for FCaravan’s Zamzama: the poetics of Indo-Persian Art Music in 2006.

Mei-Hsuan Huang was awarded the Sadie Zellen Piano Prize, given by Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) where she received her master's degree, in 2006. Before her graduation from CIM, she was selected to perform in the 2007 CIM graduation ceremonies. Recently, she was nominated as an "Excellent Performer" by Forum Music in her native country of Taiwan. She accompanied to the Erhu with her piano in Chinese Traditional Music event in January 2008.
 

Tsun-Hui Hung holds a B.M.A. in erhu performance from the Chinese Culture University, Taiwan and a M.A. in composition from Ohio University. She has received many invitations to perform in China, the United States, Korea, Japan and her native country of Taiwan. The winner of many competitions, including first prize of the National Erhu Competition in Taiwan, she was also selected to perform in a program entitled “The Rising Stars of Chinese Music, 2005” at the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She is both active in both solo and collaborative performances. She has played with many major orchestras, including the Taipei Chinese Symphony Orchestra and National Chinese Opera Company. She gave a recital of Chinese Traditional Music in Erhu in January 2008.