Ismail Butera is director of Peace through Music at Peace Festivals International.
He is a musician, storyteller and a student of ancient history, mythology and comparative religion. His love of ethnic music prompted him to perform as an accordionist among many diverse ethnic communities who immigrated to the United States, especially those from the Balkans, the Middle East and Mediterranean countries. As a performer of folk music within these varied ethnic communities he became intimately in touch with the traditional representatives of their folklore- the storytellers, musicians and artisans who maintain a people’s cultural identity.
Collecting tales, legends, mythologies and stories over the years, Ismail shared his discoveries in performance venues, museums and school programs. Most recently, he created his life long vision ~Echoes of Antiquity~ so as to present to modern audiences the stories and sagas of long ago, particularly those stories of individuals and events which have been nearly forgotten but hold a timeless message of hope and peace for our own time. In the style of the bards of old he recites a tale or some stanzas of poetry accompanied by music, thereby adding a sense of mood and dynamism as well as sparking the imagination and opening the heart center of the listener.
Besides the accordion on which he performs and composes utilizing archaic modes and drones in an effort to explore this rather modern instrument’s connection to ancient archetypes, Ismail plays various long necked lutes such as the Turkish saz, Albanian cifteli, Hindustani bowed esraj and the Central Asian kashgar rebab and dotar, as well as a variety of folk flutes and plucked lyres.
Natalia Perlaza has earned a reputation as a multi faceted percussionist performing on dumbek, Persian zarb and various Middle Eastern frame drums such as the bendir, daff and riq. Included in her varied instrumental collection is the didgeridoo and crystal bowls, both very ancient instruments with connections to spiritual practices along with rain sticks, shakers and rattles and other percussion instruments. She brings her talent, knowledge and ability to provide steady rhythm patterns for the recitation or to accompany dance, which emanates from the heart center, an important concept in the performance of ancient music.
She created her own project, Corazon Heart Sound Meditation in which she encourages practitioners to seek harmony through understanding the elements by way of their own personal heart rhythms. She also teaches astral projection techniques.
