Nalini Vinayak, a professional Sitarist and Tabla player from India, hails from a family of composers and musicians. Nalini has carved a niche for herself in the field of performing arts, as a performer, composer, director and teacher. Nalini was introduced to the world of music by her mother Smt. Kamakshi Kuppuswamy, who inculcated her in Carnatic Music. She was initiated in Sitar and Hindustani Classical Music under her Guru Pandit M. Janardan (disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar), and Tabla under Sri. Srinivasa Rao. This knowledge of both Carnatic and Hindustani styles gave her an added edge in combining the two styles. Till today, she is the only female artist to have performed Carnatic music concert on the sitar. In fact, she was the first female sitarist called upon to perform Carnatic kritis of Saint Thyagaraja at the ‘Thyagaraja Aradhanai’ at Thiruveyaru. She has performed at major music institutions like Music Academy, Narada Gana Sabha etc., during the December music season in Chennai, India. She has also performed in many venues in the U.S. Nalini was the founder of her fusion band called ‘Agni’ that drew record crowds in Florida State University, School of Music and at the Southeastern Chapter of ethnomusicology at the Tuland University at New Orleans. Her performances both in India and U.S. have been highly acclaimed both by music lovers and the harshest of critics. She was a graded artist of All India Radio. Nalini’s performances include solo concerts, jugalbandies (duets) with violin, veena, guitar and zheng, fusion music and lecture demonstrations. Nalini is also an inspired painter. Her acrylic and oil paintings of religious motifs are truly spectacular as also her gentle touch of the rural Indian scene.

Haiqiong Deng, a performer on the traditional Chinese instrument the zheng (or gu–zheng), was the winner of the Outstanding Performance Prize at the Chinese National zheng Competition in Shanghai. She made her professional debut in Bijing in 1997. Since that time she has developed an international reputation as zheng soloist and chamber musician with numerous performances throughout China, Canada, Japan, Singapore and the United States. Since 2001, she has performed in various works in music festivals and been invited to give performances and lectures at universities, museums, and national/regional conferences in the United States. Her Carnegie Hall debut recital in 2003 included two world premieres: Dots, Lines, Convergence by Chihehun Chi-sun Lee, a concerto for zheng and chamber ensemble commissioned by the Harvard Fromm Foundation, and CRUSH, a duo for zheng and soprano saxophone by Michael Sidney Timpson. Haiqiong has also expanded her musical expressions with her collaboration with Indian sitarist, Nalini Vinayak, since 2006.

Deviprasad Chabukswar has been playing Tabla for over 20 years and supported professional artists in numerous concerts in India and in the USA. Deviprasad started taking tabla lessons from Dilip Budhkar in Pune, India who followed Delhi and Banaras style of Tabla playing. Currently Deviprasad is taking advanced tabla lessons from Prithwiraj Bhattacharjee in Atlanta, who is a senior disciple Tabla Maestro Zakir Hussain.