 | Ara Topouzian
Ara showed an interest in music in early youth. He played the cornet through the public school music program and in college, he began studying Armenian and Middle Eastern classical and folk music. In 1991, he formed American Recording Productions (ARP) with the intent to record and preserve this type of world music. To date, his record label has produced over twenty recording of Armenian and Middle Eastern music. ARP products are distributed nationwide in most major retail outlets. He has performed at several Armenian, world music concerts, and folk festivals throughout the country. Ara’s music is featured in a PBS documentary entitled "The Armenian Americans" first aired in New York on March 22, 2000 and distributed nationally. |  | George Mgrdichian
George has been credited for taking the oud from the cabaret stage to the concert stage. Holding a bachelors and masters degree at Julliard School of Music, George debuted on the oud in 1967 in New York City. From that point George has been performing in concert halls and nightclubs. George can be heard on over sixty-five recordings and has received numerous awards over the years. |
 | Jim Stoyanoff
Jim is of Greek/Macedonian decent who has been studying clarinet since 1962. Since then he has specialized in the preservation and performance of Greek folk music, with particular emphasis on the regional folk clarinet styles of Greece and Macedonia. Jim has studied with some of the great masters of Greek folk music such as Stamelos and Anestopoulos. |
 | Joe Zeytoonian
Joe began his musical career in Massachusetts playing the oud (Middle Eastern lute) with popular Armenian and Middle Eastern ensembles. After his move to New York City in 1980, he began his concert career performing at the Riverside and TOMI theaters where he explored flamenco, jazz and new age forms to produce an oud style that is at once eclectic and exciting. He moved to Florida in 1985 where he currently performs concerts at local universities. Joe has taught numerous musical workshops nationwide and in 1994, he traveled to Greece where he performed at the Festival of Greek Music from the Diaspora. He has received several fellowship grants and honorable mentions from the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs. He has also received an Artistic Achievement Award for 1995 from the Broward Cultural Affairs Council. In 1996, he released The Rom-Anadolu Session through American Recording Productions (ARP). In 1988, Joe also re-released Gypsy Fever and The Rom-Anadolu Session on compact disc entitled Danse Orientale Project (ARP015), Full Circle (ARP016) and Café Makam (ARP019) through ARP. He is musical director of Harmonic Motion and has played or recorded with Abbey Rader, Myriam Eli, Satoshi Takeishi, Gary Kelly, Dave Liebman, Gloria Estefan, and Jon Secada. |
 | Leon Janikian
Leon has been an academician, professional musician, and recording engineer for over 30 years. He began his musical education at the Longy School of Music, followed by undergraduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. At both institutions he studied clarinet with Felix Viscuglia of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1975, Janikian earned his Master of Music in Music Theory and Composition from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.
In 1995, Leon was appointed an Assistant Professor of Music at Northeastern University. He continues to be very active in the recording field and is one of the most sought after musicians specializing in the traditional music of Armenia, Greece, and the Middle-East in the United States. Professor Janikian has been deeply involved with the creation of the Archive of Armenian Music in America , a major research and technical project, designed to store for posterity the aural history and traditions of the Armenian community in the United States. |
 | Mal Barsamian
Mal has been performing since a child in the greater Boston area. One of the most talented Armenian clarinetists living today, Mal performs frequently with several different Armenian and Middle Eastern musicians from around the country. A graduate with Master's degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. Mal is classically trained in guitar and is also an accomplished oud and dumbeg player. He played his first music job at age four with his father Leo and continues to perform in the East Coast area. |
 | Richard Barsamian Dick has been performing on the oud for several years throughout the USA and Puerto Rico. In the last ten years Dick has become a recording artist for ARP and continually works in the nightclub scene of New York performing Middle Eastern music. |
 | Mark Gavoor Mark Gavoor grew up in Detroit, Michigan and performed for twenty years with the Armenian band called The Johnites. Upon moving to Connecticut in 1990, he has played with a variety of bands and musicians in and around New York. Mark and Ara are old friends and recorded two projects together - both for charitable causes. (For The Children of Armenia and Faces of Bravery) Mark currently works in the Latin America Division of Colgate-Palmolive Co. |
