Laura Henderson
Her first instrument was the piano, but Laura will take part in CREDO on the Celtic harp. She has played the instrument for only six years but does so with a distinct sensibility and spontaneity. A member of Belfast's harp orchestra, Laura was strongly influenced by classical and traditional music, and in particular by Scottish and Irish culture. On a sabbatical break before resuming her studies in medicine, she is playing and recording with two other excellent musicians: her brother Jarlath, multi award-winning piper, and her sister Alana, cellist and flutist.

Jarlath Henderson
Jarlath Henderson, only 18 years from Tyrone, Northern Ireland, is a three times 'All-Ireland Champion' Uilleann Piper (the Irish bagpipe). Jarlath teaches music with the renowned Armagh Pipers Club.   He has both taught and performed at a number of international piping festivals on television and radio. In December 2003 he won the BBC 'Young Folk Musician of the Year', a major UK award.   In addition to playing uilleann pipes, Jarlath also plays flute, whistle and guitar and has a keen interest in traditional song.

Rohan Young
Despite being only 23, Rohan boasts a prestigious curriculum with a large number of international exhibitions, including participation in three editions of the Ethno festival in Sweden. An excellent percussionist, he refined his rhythmic talents on the traditional Irish "bodhran", maturing a wide, expressive range. He has been encouraged since childhood by his family of musicians. At the age of ten he participated regularly in weekly musical sessions at a club near his home. The fame of the club grew as did the size of the association's buildings, becoming what is today "The Andersonstown Contemporary and Traditional School of Music", the most avant-garde school for the teaching of traditional music in Northern Ireland. Today Rohan is also a teacher: he teaches the bodhran of which he has a unique understanding because, as well as being an excellent artist he is also a renown craftsman who makes and sells his own instruments.

Itamar Shahar
Twenty-one year-old from a Jewish family, second generation Israeli, he has family roots from Poland and Iraq. He has played classical music since he was six but later became interested in percussion and was won over by Turkish music, dedicating his time to learning the Ney flute and experimenting with the instrument. Itamar studied classical oriental music at the Musical Academy of the Jewish University in Jerusalem. He has recently spent several months participating in Sufi ceremonies in Turkey.

Mark Eliyahu
Twenty-one year-old, he has played the Tar, Saz and Kamanche since he was four years old. He is from a Jewish family, originally from Azerbaijan (where he was born). His father, after a career as classical music professor, decided to return to traditional music and compose his own pieces accompanied by his son. In the last few years Mark has spent some time in Greece where he studied with the maestro Ross Daly, after spending time in Azerbaijan to study with the maestro Adelt Maazirov. Despite his tender age, Mark teaches Saz at the Center for Classical Oriental Music at the University of Bar Ilan.

Ranin Hanna
Born in Rame, Israel in 1978, Ranin Hanna, as well as being a renowned vocalist, has a degree in communication. From 1994 to 2001 she took part as a soloist vocalist in YOA'D , a group founded in 1983 in the village of Rame, that has a repertory of progressive Arab and Palestinian songs. During this period she participated in various events in Jerusalem, Haifa, Bethlehem, Gaza, Tel Aviv and Galilee. Internationally she has performed in Spain, Jordan and Tunisia. From 2002 to 2003 she worked with the Mizaj Studio as a jingle singer for various radio stations. On October 24 and 25, 2003, she gave solo performances, accompanied by an artist from the group Sabreen , for the Fifth International conference of the Christian Ecumenical Foundation of the Holy Land in Washington. She sings in Arabic, English, and Hebrew and is currently augmenting her understanding of music and singing, directing her attention towards opera and classical music.

Noam Aharon
Noam Aharon, 25 years old, percussionist, originally from Galilee, Israel, started playing percussions at the age of 14. Today he plays and composes for the Spanish lute, a Spanish Renaissance instrument. He is considered a multipurpose musician able to combine and fuse together different influences, particularly Arabic and Northern African music styles with the Northern Indian semi classical style, which he studied in India with the international mandolin master Snehasish Mazumder from Kolkata, the only artist who uprooted the Spanish lute from its traditional folklore style to bring it into the ethnic field of music, so to create a new sound and qualities with this rare and ''forgotten'' instrument. He's currently working on his solo album that includes an original instrumental compositions with the Spanish lute hosting a variety of instruments from the Northern Indian and Northern African music. He also plays percussions, guitar and practices “vocal percussion”.

Gonca Girgin
Musician with Greco-Turkish roots (Tessalonica), she is a Sunnite Muslim. Her main instrument is the kanun, but she is also a singer and plays the bendir. She has held various seminars on different periods of Ottoman music. Author of a book which is soon to be published , The art of musical expression through writing , which starts from the Sumerian civilization, and looks at Chinese, Arabic and Turkish systems of musical notation. She is reading for master of ethnomusicology at the MIYAM (the research institute which is part of Istanbul's polytechnic).

Neset Kirsehirli
Of Caucasian roots and a Sunnite Muslim. He mainly plays the mey, as well as singing and playing a variety of other instruments such as the asma davul, the bendir, flute, guitar and piano. Neset participated as chorus member in the production of the opera Enea e Didone by Henry Purcell and in the youth choir of Radio Istanbul (TRT). He has collaborated on various album recordings. Neset is currently working on composing and writing lyrics for his soon-to-be released album.

Hakan Kaya
Of Kurdo-Persian origin, he is an Alevi Muslim. His main instrument is the darbuka, but he plays other instruments: cifte nagara, cember, def, bendir, tabla. He studied tabla at the Varanasi University in India for four months. Hakan has collaborated on various albums. He is currently working on recording the album Orient Expression , with Richard Hammer, Dj Yakuza and Cem Yildiz for Doublemoon Records.

Cory S. Hills (United States of America)
A graduate of Northwestern University (Bachelors of percussion performance and music education) and the Queensland Conservatorium (Masters of percussion performance), Cory's principal teachers include Michael Burritt, James Ross, Vanessa Tomlinson, Anders Astrand, Ruben Alvarez, Joel Spencer, and Paul Wertico. Cory has performed as a section member with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Queensland Orchestra, as a soloist with the Northwestern University Percussion Ensemble, as a section member and soloist with the United States Army Band, and was a finalist for the off Broadway musical STOMP.   Currently, Cory is creating shows for sick and disadvantaged children that combine improvised solo percussion with vocal story telling. Cory resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Liao Hai-Ting (Australia/Taiwan)
Hai-Ting began her musical studies at the age of 7 with the studies of piano and was admitted to a music immersion program at the age of 10 and began her studies of percussion. Kay graduated from Queensland Conservatorium in November 2004.

During her studies, she has been the recipient of various awards including a Queensland Conservatorium Post Graduate Scholarship, a 1 st prize in the Australian Percussion Eisteddfod Open Marimba Section 2003, 2 nd prize in 2002.   She has been a recipient of awards in other sections including Open Multi-Percussion section and Open Duo section.   Her most recent award includes a grant from the Benetton Research and Development Communication Centre to take part in a Project at the Fabrica Institute in Italy.   Aside from her solo activities, her duo with Paul Lin, was formed to explore the musical potentials of percussion duo.  

Hai-Ting has a keen interest in developing and promoting the percussion repertoire.   As an active member of Ba Da Boom Percussion Ensemble, Kay was involved in the Australian Premiere of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians .   She has also given several premiers with various ensembles. Her most recent engagements include her collaboration with Brisbane based contemporary music ensemble TOPOLOGY in the Steve Reich Mini-Marathon.

William Barton (Australia)
William Barton is the leading didgeridoo soloist performing extensively with major orchestras and artists overseas and throughout Australia and recording and commissioning new works for the instrument. He is a descendant of the Kalkadunga people of   North Western Queensland and began learning the didgeridoo at age eight. He is Australia's first didgeridoo artist in residence with the Queensland Orchestra. In 2003 William was co-winner of the Music council of Australia/Freedman Foundation Fellowship for Classical Music and in 2004 received the Lord Mayors Fellowship for Young and emerging Artist to pursue private theory tuition at the Queensland Conservatorium - Brisbane. Always in 2003 he collaborated with composer and conductor Sean O'Boyle to write the "Concerto for Didgeridoo", that has already been performed overseas including America and most recently, a tour to Taiwan with the Brisbane Symphonic Band. Highlights include: Performances in Australia and internationally of revised works by Peter Sculthorpe, ARIA Award nomination for Best Classical Album 2004 ABC Classics recording "Songs of Sea and Sky" Peter Sculthorpe - Queensland Orchestra conducted by Michael Christie and work with composer conducter - Sean O'Boyle He will debut with the London Philharmonic in May 2005.

www.didgesphere.com

As a child she was put to violin lessons but she preferred listening to punk and progressive rock.   As a teenager she gained national attention for her bird sound imitations. She studied classical singing up to 3rd grade in FIH school of music in Reykjavik and she also sang in Langholtskirkja church choir for 4 years.

While in college she made vocal sounds for radio and in 1999 she acted the role of the seagull in a radio play The Seagull by Jon Gnarr. She sang on the soundtrack of the film Gooseparty in 2001.Her singing is also featured in the recent film Hannes Revelation (2003) by Hrafn Gunnlaugsson based on a story by the Icelandic prime minister. In June 2003 Gunnlaug attended The Institute for Living Voice workshops in Marseille where she met David Moss and Andrea Molino.

Hugo Smit (New Zealand)
Hugo's passion for music began while singing in school and church choirs. He took up the piano and tuba before settling on the cello as his main instrument. A keen chamber and orchestral musician, he has been a member of the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra and a chamber music coach for youngsters. In 2003 he completed a music degree in New Zealand majoring in cello, having also studied digital music and philosophy. After his time at Fabrica, he hopes to further his studies abroad. He is now 21.

Holger Stenschke (Germany)
Holger grew up in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He later moved to Graz and Basel, where he attended artistic schools and was introduced to audio engineering, electronic music and audio design. Now 28, the manifold experience acquired during his studies has allowed him to cover a wide field of activities: composing experimental electronic music, working on sound design for film, developing audio and video software as well as complex interactive systems. He has a particular interest in performing electronic music on stage and, together with saxophonist Raphael Camenisch, he recently founded the electro-instrumental duo "Glattes Haar".

Cornelius Bohn (Germany)
Cornelius was born in Münsingen, Germany in musical familiy. He studied in Graz at the IEM (Institut für elektronische Musik) by Robert Höldrich. Now he is about to complete his studies in Audiodesign by Erik Ona at the ?Hochschule für Musik" in Basel.