Moufadhel Adhoum (Tun) Oud

Moufadhel Adhoum was born in 1965 in one of the most popular neighbourhoods of old Medina in Tunis. At the age of 12 he was introduced to the art of oud by the great master of traditional Tunesian and eastern music, Mr. Abderrahmane El Mehdi, and musicologist and Doctor in history of music, Mr Salah El Mehdi. At the same moment, he studied sheet music, Tunisian, Eastern and Arabic music at the Academy of Music of Tunis. He joined a national youth orchestra conducted by maestro Abdelkerim Dlissi and accompanied singers like Latifa, Amina Fakhet, Chokri Omar, etc who are now very famous in Tunisia and Arabia. He also founded several musical ensembles, arranged music and worked as a sound manager at the recording studio Affriquiya Voici. When he arrived in Belgium in 1989, intending to study interior design, he met lots of musicians of different origins and cultures like Turks, Spaniards and Indians and he founded the quartet Shahnez. Later he also collaborated with Ghalia Benali on the project Romeo and Leila, and became her musical righthand. He has performed on lots of international worldmusic festivals and is certainly one of the best oud players of Belgium.

Niko Deman (B-Gr) Piano

Niko Deman showed enthusiasm for music from a small age. That’s why at the age of eight he got his first keyboard on which he started experimenting with the magic of sounds. At the age of 16 the Greek background of his mother motivated him to start playing the bouzouki on his own. Four years later a Greek traditional music group was born which practiced the genre rebetika. In 1997, his growing interest in jazz made him put all his energy in studying jazzpiano at the Jazzstudio of Antwerp. With his limitless goals, he began studying at the Academy of Music of Antwerp in 2000. He completed the years of candidature with Eric Vermeulen and the master program with Cristoph Erbstösser. Today Niko is a teacher of Jazz and Light Music at the Municipal Academies of Schoten.

Ben Faes (B) Bass

Ben Faes is a bass player based in Antwerp, graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. From 1997 to 2001 he was selected for the European Union Youth Orchestra. He played under the direction of conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Paavo Järvi and Sir Colin Davis. As a classical bass player, Ben Faes worked together with the Spectra ensemble, Anima Eterna, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra … Ben is currently playing with the "De Groote-Faes duo" with which he has made two recordings "and Route" and "Symphony for 2 little boys - featuring Dave Douglas”. These records were well received by the international press. He also collaborated with Wannes Van De Velde, Raymond Van Het Groenewoud, Kommil Foo, Roland Van Campenhout and many other artists.

Chryster Aerts (B) Percussion

Chryster studied drums at the Academy of Music of Antwerp, Jazz and Light Music department, with the teachers Chander Sardjoe, Stephane Galland and Jan de Haas. He enrolled in several teaching practices for drums and percussion in both his own country and foreign countries (Berklee Summerschool in Italy, African percussion in Senegal, etc.). Chryster draws his experience out of several jazz formations like DEEP, DEEP, Four Orbits, Rainbow Rhythms, Virus, Paola Marquez Quartet and his sextet C.A. Band. Nowadays he mostly puts his energy in the booty shakin' bigband Balaxy Orchestra, the pop group Assunta Mano and the Tunesian grooving Hijaz. He teaches drums and percussion classes at the Music Academies of Baarle-Hertog/Hoogstraten and Grimbergen and is the principal of the Junior Academy of Music of Sterrebeek. He also works as a freelance musician in schools and gives courses/workshops djembé (Villa Basta, Piazza dell’Arte, Oorsmeer,…). In May 2003, he received a laude of the Koning Boudewijnstichting for the project Ritmiekdag produced with his collegue-friend-drummer-percussionist Bart Van Aken. He also works as a freelance musician with the Dance Company Enclave of Roberto Olivan (De Farra, Helsinki 2005), Jerboa, the percussiongroup Mzungi and others…