Born in Istanbul, Selcuk Suna comes from a family of musicians. He was eight years old when he joined the children’s opera in Ataturk Cultural Centre and his parents decided to get him started on the clarinet when he was 11 in order to strengthen his lungs, which eventually led him to the saxophone at age 17. By the time Suna was 18, he was performing on various television programs and for many famous pop singers throughout Turkey.

While in high school, Suna studied clarinet at the conservatory in Istanbul and won numerous vocal competitions. He was granted a full scholarship to study jazz at Bilgi University in Istanbul, which earned him a degree in jazz music.

While living in Turkey, Suna played on a weekly Friday late-night show for 13 years. He also played with numerous pop stars, including Shakira, as well as on countless albums, television shows, musicals, and vocal recordings. As a composer, he has scored music for the theatre.

Suna currently resides in Toronto and is a freelance musician with such groups as the New Canadian Global Music Orchestra, DIA, Sultans of String, and more, and can be seen at various venues throughout the GTA.

Padideh Ahrarnejad is a musician, arranger, composer, and educator specializing in the tar, a plucked-string instrument central to Persian music. A graduate of the Tehran Art Music School and the Art University of Tehran, Padideh studied tar with major figures of Persian music, including Behrouz Hemati, Hossein Alizadeh, and Hooshang Zarif. She has been the recipient of the award for best tar player at the Fadir Music Festival in Iran several times. A member of the Iran National Music Orchestra and the Radio and Television Orchestra for 10 years, Padideh has performed around the world, bringing Persian music to countries including Switzerland, China, Kuwait, Germany, Austria, and Canada. Her compositions and arrangements have appeared on Iranian television and radio, and she was selected to write arrangements for a group of Persian Ensembles at the Rumi Festival in Oslo, Norway. She has played with the Simorg Orchestra, and was a featured soloist in the album Honarmandan Javan, organized by Hossein Alizadeh, a legendary figure in contemporary Persian Music. 

Since emigrating to Toronto, Canada in 2016, she has become a member of Kuné - Canada's Global Orchestra,  a group of elite players from different musical traditions organized by the Royal Conservatory of Music. With the Global Music Orchestra she has performed across Canada and several times on the CBC, and recorded a self-titled album at the Banff Centre, released by Universal Music Canada. Her group, Navaye Kimia, has been presented at the Tirgan festival, the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto City Hall, Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, and elsewhere. She has been featured at the Aga Khan Museum, with the Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto, the Barg Ensemble, Tapestry New Opera Works, and Avaye Andalib. She was a participant in the first Toronto Arts Council Newcomer Mentorship program, and received multiple grants. She also performs in a trio with Maziar Heidari (piano) and Pedram Khavarzamini (tombak), and in Anwar Khorshid's group, Sitar Fusion.

Padideh teaches tar and setar in Toronto, and continues to pursue a wide range of performance and recording projects, working in Iranian music and in collaboration with a wide range of global musicians in the Toronto area and beyond.

Mexican-Canadian Paco Luviano hails from a family of musicians and is the son of legendary performer Macario Luviano. He has been frequently called on for global and hybrid music projects with such international artists as: Jane Bunnett, Dafnis Prieto, Ignacio Berroa, Filó and Celso Machado, Al Di Meola, Liona Boyd, Randy Brecker, Paquito D’Rivera, Faris Amine, and the Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra & Hutsul Planet/The Music of the Planets, among others.

Since her travels to Canada in 2003, Aline Morales has become known as a dynamic singer, percussionist, and bandleader. With the release of her debut solo album, the Juno Award nominated Flores, Tambores e Amores, she gained national attention, widespread critical acclaim, and the album reached No. 1 on Canada’s folk/world charts. 

Born and raised in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, she began her performing career as a child. She also trained in capoeira and, by the time she reached her 20s, she had performed in a variety of traditional and modern bands, including one of Brazil’s most well-known maracatu groups, Nacao Estrela Brilhante do Recife, led by Mestre Walter de Franca. Since her arrival in Toronto, she has been a tireless promoter of the traditional maracatu rhythms of north-eastern Brazil, performing with her 30-member percussion troupe, Baque de Bamba.

Hailing from Athens, Greece, Demetrios Petsalakis performs in a variety of styles with a focus on Greek and Middle Eastern lutes. Influenced by the rich cultural diversity of Canada, Demetri incorporates musical elements from different traditions in order to create a contemporary sound that represents both his heritage and the community of which he is a part.  An active member of the Toronto world music scene Demetri has recorded and performed with groups including The New Canadian Global Music Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Ventanas, Near East, Nomadica, Zephyr, Turkwaz, Lenka Lichtenberg and Fray, Odessa Havana, and The Blue Dot. During his musical studies, Demetri has been fortunate to learn from many great teachers including oud masters Basam Bishara, and Christos Tsiamoulis as well as master of the Cretan Lyra Astrinos Zaharioudakis and renowned jazz guitarist Lorne Lofsky.

Matias Recharte was born in Lima, Peru. He built his first drum set out of cans and buckets at age 11 and later studied Afro-Peruvian music, eventually moving to Afro-Cuban folklore. He completed a Bachelor of Music at the Rotterdam Conservatorium. There, he specialized in Latin drum set and percussion, having the opportunity to share music with people from all over the world. After a couple of years back in Peru, playing and teaching, he moved with his family to Toronto, where he completed an MA in ethnomusicology and continued to perform with Latin American and Canadian artists. He is currently enrolled at the University of Toronto, pursuing a PhD in music education and continues his studies in South Indian percussion with Professor Trichy Sankaran.