Fazal Ahmadyar began performing Afghan folk songs that he learned from his family in Kabul Afghanistan. He has played with such musicians as Zahir Howaida, Kabir Howaida and Ahmad Zahir. He attended Kabul University to study medicine, but decided to continue playing music and in 1970, immigrated to the U.S. to study music and drama. He is a singer-songwriter and composer of Afghan music for harmonium.

Krystle Ahmadyar is a vocalist, composer, dancer, and artist. Her music is rooted in her Afghan and Mexican ancestral traditions of storytelling and song. She shares stories of love, resiliency, and oppression through music and movement. She studies Afghan music with her father, jazz vocals with Molly Holm, and studied experimental music at Mills College. 

Jenay "ShinobiJaxx" Anolin an Oakland native, is an independent dance performer, nutrition educator,  choreographer, mentor and movement coach, who is versed in Ballet, Hip Hop, House, Waacking and other street dance styles. She has a A.S. degree in Nutrition and Dietetics and a B.A. in Dance and Cultural Studies from UCLA with a minor in child development.  

Rose Armin-Hoiland collaborates and performs with some of the finest jazz musicians in the Bay Area, including the illustrious pianist Dan Zemelman, and Grammy-winning violinist Mads Tolling. Rose is also the vocalist for Albert Greenberg’s Lost American Jazzbook concert series and album, which won "Jazz Vocal Album of the Year" from the 14th Annual Independent Music Awards. She can also be found making joyful noise with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. 

Sheldon Brown, composer and woodwind artist has been active on the Bay Area music scene for over 25 years, leading his own groups and playing in some of the most interesting and creative ensembles in the Bay Area and beyond. In 2013 he received grants from Chamber Music America and San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music to compose Blood of the Air, an extended composition based on the speech melodies and poetry of Beat-era Surrealist poet Philip Lamantia. Blood of the Air premiered at the 32nd Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival in June of 2014. Brown has been a key member of Clarinet Thing (led by Beth Custer), since 1991.

Tawfic N. Halaby,  the eldest of five children, was born in Kuwait to a Palestinian father and an American mother.  He participated in musicals and played the trumpet while attending expatriate British and American schools in Saudi Arabia. Tawfic is a member of the World Harmony Chorus, and traveled to Cuba with the chorus on a cultural exchange that culminated in an international choral festival in Santiago de Cuba.

Said Hashemi is a percussionist who has been studying tabla and playing concerts since 1982, first studying classical Indian tabla and later with Ustad Asif. He plays tabla, dhol, doira, congas, shoulder drum and jazz drums. He was born in Kabul. In 1992, while attending medical school, he fled Afghanistan to escape the war. He has played with numerous Afghan and American musicians, and has also played music for the U.S. military training center. 

Darrin Johnston, a Canada born trumpeter, composer and songwriter, has collaborated and recorded with an extremely diverse cross-section of artists.  His interests rotate around composing instrumental music, writing songs, and performing all styles of jazz, experimental and purely improvised music, as well as traditional music of the Balkans, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, and the Arab world.  Johnston has a BA from the Cincinnati Conservatory of music, and an MFA in composition from Mills College. 

Maya Kronfeld is a rhythm-driven piano player and keyboardist. Born in Berkeley, California to Israeli parents, she has been heard in venues ranging from Lincoln Center in New York to the Viper Room in Los Angeles. The Maya Kronfeld Trio, an original jazz project, was recently featured on KCSM. 

Rogelio Landaverde has been in the mix of performing as a musician and actor. This is his first time working with Black Swan Arts and Media. Thank you for joining us on this journey of masks, family and food. Enjoy.

Amy Prosser has performed with the Denver Center, Geva, Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, Sacramento Theatre Company, PCPA Theaterfest, Capital Stage, foolsFURY, Ashland New Plays Festival, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She is a graduate of the A.C.T. Summer Training Congress, earned her BA in English and Russian at University of California, Berkeley, and has an MFA in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory. 

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