Seido Salifoski (dumbek): A Macedonian Roma, Seido has played dumbek in Balkan and Middle Eastern tradition for thirty years. He is known for his unique virtuosity in the U.S., Canada and Europe, playing with notable musicians such as Tarkan, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Ivan Milev, and Ivo Papazov. While exploring his roots in his own groups The Balkan Brothers and Romski Boji, he is also a member of influential Balkan-jazz quartet Paradox Trio.
Ismail Butera (accordion): Ismail Butera is highly regarded for his lyrical, expressive style of playing in various Balkan, Eastern European, and Near Eastern accordion styles. He has performed extensively with many well-known musicians at major concert venues throughout his career. He continues to perform, including with Seido, as part of The Balkan Brothers. He also leads The Sounds of Taraab, a group that specializes in music from Zanzibar and East Africa.
Ismail Lumanovski (clarinet): Born in Bitola, Macedonia to a Turkish Romani family, Ismail started playing the clarinet at the age of nine. His love and technical skill on both western classical and Balkan Folk music already set him apart even from the clarinetists twice his age. He travels all over the country to play at concerts and Balkan weddings, while attending The Juilliard School where he studies with Mr. Charles Neidich.
Brad Shepik (guitar): Brad is one of a number of great players (such as Jim Black, Chris Speed, and Briggan Krauss) to move to N.Y.C. from Seattle in the early '90s to make their mark on the downtown scene. He has performed with Yuri Yunakov, Paradox Trio, Theodosii Spassov, Pachora, Tiny Bell Trio, Simon Shaheen as well as his own groups. His latest recording is "Places You Go" (Songlines 2007).
Carol Freeman (voice): A highly respected performer, researcher, and instructor of Balkan, Greek, and Judaic folk and urban vocal traditions since 1970. A founding member of the highly acclaimed pioneering Balkan vocal trio Zhenska Pesna, she has also performed extensively with the Asia Minor Greek Music Ensemble, the Smyrneiki Kompania, the Sevda Balkan Music Ensemble, and a variety of other companies. She has received several awards to study traditional arts, including an International Research Exchange Award to The Rodop Mountains in Bulgaria and a New York State Council on the Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship. As an expert vocal and a teacher of Balkan and other vocal traditions, she has been on staff as a teacher of Balkan and Greek song and vocal technique at the East European Folklife Center’s Balkan Music and Dance Workshops since their inception in 1977.
Kazuki Kozuru-Salifoska (dumbek): Kazuki has been a student of for about 13 years. She has studied dumbek under notable teachers, Suhail Kasper and Seido Salifoski among them. She is also studying Latin Conga to deepen her sense of rhythm and complexity. She has been performing in New York City area in various styles, genre and stages, from Rebetiko (Greek traditional) with Eros Taksimi, American Tribal bellydance with Rockabelly and Kassar, off-Broadway bellydance show Goddessdance with Jehan Kamal, to rather Eurocentric Renaissance Faires with Karpathos, etc.