Young Croatian cellists Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser, known as 2CELLOS, achieved sensational success by taking the cello to a new level and breaking the boundaries between different genres of music. Their unique cello version of Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal' took the world by storm. Within only a week, this YouTube video became a huge viral sensation leading to a record deal with Sony Masterworks and an invitation to join Elton John on his worldwide tour. 

Since then, the duo has appeared on major TV shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Ellen DeGeneres Show (multiple times), Lopez Tonight, TV Total with Stefan Raab and many others. 2CELLOS recently performed with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and are releasing their second album IN2ITION in January 2013. The album was produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Deep Purple) and features an eclectic group of vocal and instrumental guests including Elton John, Steve Vai, Lang Lang, Naya Rivera and Zucherro. 

Persian Composer
Independent Musician
Visual Artist.

Shayan Gorji is a Persian Composer and Music Producer and Multi-instrumentalist who started and continued playing music with Percussion Instruments at the age of 6, and learned Piano and Guitar & Sound Engineering as a teenager.

He has performed and activated as Arranger and Singer in many traditional and fusion Iranian music groups concerts.

He attaches great importance to the minimalism and simplicity of his pieces, and his goal in his pieces is to combine Persian traditional music with other world music styles and genres in order to familiarize and express the understanding of Iran's cultural and musical similarities with other countries of the world.

Aida Shahghasemi is a Minneapolis based musician with roots in Iran. She studied Psychology and Anthropology at University of Minnesota with a focus on the cultural aspects of Persian Classical Music and the restrictions imposed on the voices of Iranian female vocalists. She received her Masters degree from New York University in Arts Politics where she also served as an adjunct instructor teaching a course she developed on arts activism in Iran. She has worked with a number of different Art and Social Advocacy groups in New York and Minnesota as a musician, graphic designer, and developer and has served as an Assistant Program Coordinator at Hamline University’s Making Waves Social Justice Theatre Troupe. She has been a touring member of Iron and Wine and Marketa Irglova’s band while also being a recording artist on two of Glen Hansard’s albums. Her three albums are “Wind Between the Horse’s Ears,” released in 2015, “Cypress of Abarkooh,” released in 2019 and “Chashmandaaze Rooydaad,” released in August of 2022. She is a McKnight Music Fellow and serves as an adjunct faculty in the MFA program at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Aida is a mental health therapist at CAREFree counseling and works primarily with adults and couples dealing with trauma.

Vesal Alavi (b. 1992) had attended the Hafez Opera with the National Orchestra of Ukraine in 2012, directed by Behrooz Gharibpour. 
Vesal Alavi has had constant activities in the forms of live performances and single tracks. He also had been selected at several national festivals such as the 7th Young Music Festival, and more.

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