Souad Massi (Kabyle: Suɛad Masi, Arabic: سعاد ماسي) (born 23rd August 1972), is an Algerian of Kabyle descent, singer, songwriter and guitarist. She began her career performing in the Algerian political rock band Atakor, before leaving the country following a series of death threats. In 1999, Massi performed at the Femmes d'Algerie concert in Paris, which led to a recording contract with Island Records.
Sophie Solomon is a singer-songwriter/violinist born in the United Kingdom, who fuses many different musical influences into her music. Sophie Solomon began playing the violin at the age of two. At four she met Yehudi Menuhin and was taken to see the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. For the first five years she played totally by ear, learning to read music at the age of seven. Even though the National Children's Orchestra and ProCorda said she was one of the most promising violinists of her...
Carmen Pacheco Rodríguez, born in Linares (Jaén) in 1951, is without doubt a fundamental pillar of all current flamenco singing, she masters a vast repertoire of flamenco styles due to her long experience. Her enormous versatility has allowed her to take part in zarzuelas (a Spanish form of musical drama), plays and several projects involving classical musicians and musicans from the world of jazz. Out of her works, the recording of an anthology of female flamenco singing is the one which stands out.
Marcel Khalifé (Arabic: مرسيل خليفة) was born in 1950 in Amchit, Mount-Lebanon. He studied the oud (the Arabic lute) at the Beirut National conservatory. His music works around the classical Arabic oud but also includes jazz piano and many other influences. His playing techniques expand far outside those of classical oud playing, however, and he is attributed for having greatly expanded the horizons of this traditional Arabic instrument.