Heather MacDonald – Flute

Heather was born in the Falkland Islands, off the Southern coast of Argentina, and grew up on the Shetland Islands, off Northern Scotland. She studied classical flute at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, and gained her Masters in Ethnomusicology with distinction from the University of London. She moved to Palestine permanently in 1998, and teaches and leads the wind department at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. She plays flute and nai in several Western and Oriental ensembles.

Øystein B. Frantzen – Double Bass

Øystein was born in Norway in 1974, and grew up in Ecuador, South America. Back in Norway he started playing flute and piano, but in high school he picked up the double bass. He gained his Masters in Musicology from the University of Oslo, where he wrote his thesis on Brazilian music. He conducted several choirs in Norway before coming to live in Palestine in 2003. He taught bass, piano, guitar and music theory at the National Conservatory of Music, led the Palestinian vocal ensemble, Zaridash, conducted the two ESNCM orchestras, and was an active member of several other Oriental and Western music ensembles. He currently lives and works as a musician in Zanzibar.

Yousif Hbeisch – Percussion

Yousif Hbeisch was born in 1967 in the village of Yarka in the Galilee. He originally studied literature and philosophy, and currently is furthering his music studies at Haifa University. He is multi-talented in both Eastern and Western genres, particularly Oriental, Indian, African, Afro-Cuban and Latin percussion. Yousif has taught percussion at the ESNCM of Palestine and at Beit Al-Musica: the Shefa-Amr Conservatory of Music in the Galilee, and maintains ties with both institutions. Currently he is a member of several ensembles in the area including Zimar and The Oriental Music Ensemble of the ESNCM. He has participated in several international festivals and accompanied many international artists including Issa Hassan, Abed Azrieh, and Ellie Ma'louf, Soeur Marie Kairuz, Simon Shaheen, and recently Belgian Modern Jazz Group Aka-Moon and Suliman Erguner from Turkey.

Nasser Salameh – Percussion 

Nasser is a Palestinian who was born in Jordan in 1977. He is a self-taught musician, specializing in Middle Eastern percussion. His talent has led him to participate in many festivals in Europe and the Middle East, and he was awarded the first prize for best musician in the pan-Jordanian Universities’ competition in 1999 and 2000. He has performed with many groups and oud players, and joined Karloma in 2000, during the time that he was teaching percussion at the National Conservatory of Music in Palestine. He presently lives in Amman, Jordan, where he studies and teaches percussion at the Music Academy in Amman .

Torbjörn Westman – Key Fiddle 

Torbjörn was born in Uppland, the famous key-fiddle area in Sweden. As well as playing key fiddle, he studied classical violin in the Ingesund Academy, Sweden and the Liszt Academy, Hungary. Since 1987 he has been a member of one of the leading Swedish string orchestras, Camerata Nordica, and is the founder and leader of the world music band Kesergö. He was recently proud to receive the accolade of "one of the 100 funniest moments in Swedish television" while playing the key-fiddle in a children´s show from the early 1970s! Torbjörn lived in Palestine in 2003-4, teaching violin at the ESNCM, and continues to visit regularly, performing and tutoring at chamber music courses.