Dr. Rami Gabriel is of Lebanese and Egyptian descent. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Columbia College Chicago. Dr. Gabriel performs occasionally with the University of Chicago Middle Eastern Ensemble under Issa Boulos and was a member of the UCSB Middle Eastern Ensemble fron 2002-2007 under the tutelage of Dr. Scott Marcus. He also participated in Simon Shaheen's Arabic music workshop in the Summer of 2008. In addition to performing on the Oud, Rami plays lead guitar in local "Doctor Swing" and occasionally plays rhythm guitar for "Swing Gitan" and the "Chico Malo Trio". Rami also fronts a rock band "dadad" and records audio postcards.

Eric Ederer is a composer and music researcher currently writing his dissertation on taksim and Turkish makam to earn a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His master's level research was on the cümbüÅŸ, a fretless 12-string Turkish banjo-like instrument. Over the last decade he has played Arab, Turkish, Armenian, Persian, Sephardic, Greek, and Assyrian musics in the UCSB Middle East Ensemble (cümbüÅŸ and ud), for which he was the ud tutor for 5 years; Greek rembétika and smyrnéika music in Mesógeios (darbuka and baglamás); and Sephardic music in Flor de Kanela (cümbüÅŸ, ud). He has recently moved to Evanston, IL after a 42 week research trip on a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship in Istanbul Turkey, and is happy to be playing lâvta with the Bulbul Ensemble.  Visit Eric's Website