Samir Chatterjee is one of India's leading tabla players.  Born into a musical family in Calcutta, he began his studies early with Pandit Bankim Ghosh, Pandit Balaram Mukherjee, Pandit Rathin Djar, and Mohammad Salim.  His later formation as a musician occurred under the guidance of Pandit Amalesh Chatterjee and Pandit Shyamal Bose.  All of Samir's teachers have been from the Farrukhabad Gharana school of tabla which he now represents. Samir appears frequently as a soloist and accompanist throughout India.  Since 1982, he has toured extensively in the United States and Canada, in Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia. All India Radio maintains Samir as an A-rated artist.  He can be heard on numerous recordings both as soloist and accompanying many of India's greatest musicians.  Samir has worked with Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, Pt. V.G. Jog, Pt. Dr. L Subrhamaniam , Ud. Salamat Ali Khan, Smt. Lakshmi Shankar, Smt. Girija Devi and many others.

Samir presently lives in New York where he has become a catalyst in the fusion of Indian and Western music, performing with Pauline Oliveros, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Gorn, Glen Velez, Bobby Sanabria, Ben Verdery, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Ethos Percussion Group and other jazz and avante garde musicians.  He is a member of the jazz trios, SYNC, with Ned Rothenberg and Jerome Harris, and SATYA, with Dave Douglas and Myra Melford.  He is the composer and director of Nacho Nacho - Gypsy Storytelling.  He performs with Sanjay Mishra on his CD, Blue Incantation, and performs with and advises the Battery Dance Company and the Kathak Ensemble.

Samir has been teaching for 24 years, and many of his students are now established performers.  He is the founder/director of CHHANDAYAN, an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving Indian music and culture by conducting classes and workshops, organizing concerts, and maintaining a library.  Samir makes regular contributions as a journalist and musicologist.

Mohawk Elder Tom Porter has been a nationally recognized figure in Indian Country since the 1960s when he co-founded the White Roots of Peace, a group of Iroquois Elders who toured the country sharing traditional teachings and encouraging Indians to embrace their respective Native traditions. Recognizing that Mohawk language and culture were dying out, he also co-founded the Akwesasne Freedom School for grades K-8, with a curriculum entirely in Mohawk. As an educator, Mr. Porter has taught a range of subjects at the Akwesasne Freedom School, Trent University, Akwesasne and the Tyiendinaga Reserve, and has worked as a cultural researcher and consultant for the North American Indian Traveling College. Mr. Porter is the author of the book Our Ways, a study of Iroquoian clan systems, published by the North American Indian Traveling College, and has received the Rothko Chapel Award from Trent University in Ontario, where he helped teach a course on Iroquoian Native studies. for commitment to truth and freedom. In 1993, after problems stemming from Mr. Porter’s opposition to gambling on the Akwesasne Reservation, he and a number of other Mohawks founded the community on a 400-acre property in the Mohawk Valley that was their original ancestral land, known as Kanatsiohareke, or “place of the clean pot”, with the goal of living self-sufficiently, in accordance with traditional Mohawk spiritual beliefs. They felt the key to their future was creating a new home where they could live in accordance with traditional Mohawk spiritual beliefs—free from the violence, casinos, bingo, drug and alcohol problems that plagued life at Akwesasne. They are learning to blend environmentally supportive energy and farming technologies with Native traditions. The community practices organic vegetable farming, operates a bed & breakfast, and runs a crafts store. Mr. Porter is committed to implementing programs that facilitate an understanding of Native American culture. He has created a college exchange program in which students perform community services at Kanatsiohareke during a one-week residency and discuss Native American history and philosophy with the community members at night. Students from Cornell University, S.U.N.Y. Albany, Sarah Lawrence College, Virginia Tech, The College of William and Mary, Emma Willard School in Troy, NY, and Fordham University have participated in this program. In 1998, Mr. Porter launched the first Iroquois Immersion Program, a language and lifeway restoration project for the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse). The Iroquois Immersion Program is the cornerstone of a larger project, the Carlisle Indian Boarding School In Reverse,  an institution designed to reverse assimilation and cultural genocide. Kanatsiohareke was founded on the principle that language restoration opens the door for culture and traditions to become living entities.  The residents of Kanatsiohareke  use Mohawk for everyday communication as well as ceremonial practices. Since July 1998, Mr. Porter has been bringing MOHAWK HEART SONG to New York City. The events include traditional social singing and dancing, beadwork and basketweaving, and "Journey Through the Iroquois Longhouse" — stories from the Iroquois’ rich oral heritage.

Momo Suzuki (Japanese Folk Dance) started studying classical Japanese Dance at the age of seven, with the Fujima School of Yamagata, Japan. She studied traditional Japanese Folk dance at the Toriko Ogawa School under Sensei Ogawa who was also the Folk dance instructor for Japan Victor Corporation. As a member of the Kamioka Japanese Folk Dance Company of Tokyo (as both a student and a teacher) she taught special dance workshops throughout the Tokyo area. After coming to New York in 1983, she performed at La Mama and Marymount theaters with the Hibiki Performing Arts Group. She also performed with Louis Johnson (choreographer for the 'WIZ') at the Henry Street Settlement. In 1992, Ms. Suzuki founded The Japanese Folk Dance Institute of New York Inc. to promote and preserve traditional folk dances of Japan. She has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The University of Idaho Jazz Festival (with Lionel Hampton). She has performed at various social, cultural and educational events and is available for booking through Lotus Music & Dance Studios.