Ziyiá - because only the best will do!

Lise Liepman: santoúri, baglamá, accordion
Lise began her involvement with Balkan music in 1976 in the vibrant dance scene of the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a member and director of Westwind International Folk Ensemble for many years. At a Balkan music and dance camp Lise first heard the sound of the santouri (Greek hammered dulcimer) and was hooked. She began studying santouri with the Philadelphia-based musician Yiannis Roussos. She and her husband George Chittenden moved to Athens, Greece, where she continued her studies with the master musician Tásos Dhiakogiórgis. Lise plays santouri, accordion, and baglamá in the bands Ziyiá and Édessa and has toured internationally with the band Rebetiki Paréa. She has taught santouri at Balkan music workshops on both the west and east coasts as well as in Hawaii.

George Chittenden: clarinet, saxophone, gaida, zourna
George has been playing Balkan and Near Eastern music since the mid-1970s, having previously become familiar with the music through his experience as a dancer and performer. He has studied music extensively abroad, focusing primarily on regional dance music of northern Greece and Anatolian Turkey. This has included traveling to remote corners of both countries to experience the social celebrations in which music plays such a central role, as well as learning regional styles from both rural and professional musicians. George performs regularly for ethnic communities and for folk music and dance events throughout the country and has toured abroad. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Lise and plays with two bands; Ziyiá and Édessa, known for playing high-energy dance music of the southern Balkans.

Christos Govetas: vocals, bouzoúki, oúti, laoúto, clarinet, zourna
Christos was born in the village of Proti in the province of Serres in Greek Macedonia. He is a well-known singer and instrumentalist. After emigrating to Boston in 1978 he joined the Greek rebetiko band Taximi as a bouzouki player and their main vocalist. Since then he has played classical Turkish music on the oud and bendir with The Eurasia Ensemble, Greek, Turkish and Arabic music with Karaváni and regional Balkan music with Tito's Revenge and Akshambelah in the Boston area. He has performed extensively in the U.S., Canada and Greece and has for the last ten years taught and performed Greek regional music in Balkan and Middle-Eastern Music and Dance Camps on both coasts of the U.S. Currently he is a member of the nationally known bi-coastal band Ziyiá and performs regularly with Pangéo in the Seattle area. Christos is the 1999 recipient of the prestigious Northwest Folklife Fellowship Award honoring his cultural contribution to the Greek-American and Folk dance communities. When he is not playing music Christos is in the architectural design and construction business.

Dan Auvil: doumbeléki, daoúli, defi
Dan was first exposed to Greek music as a college student in the San Francisco Bay Area and was interested in the new melodies and foreign instruments. Dan was especially drawn to the large two-headed drum called daoúli. He met George at these events and soon they were playing live music for a small dance group. Over the years his skill and reputation have grown and he is known as a "dancers" drummer. He also teaches at the annual Balkan Music and Dance Camp in Mendocino, California. Dan does design for Ziyiá including their website and the graphics for their recordings.

Beth Cohen: violin, Macedonian lyras, baglamá
Beth plays the violin, various lyras from Greece, and the Turkish yayli (bowed) tanbur, performing Greek music with Ziyiá, Demetrios Tashie, and others. She has studied and played with violin and lyra players in Greece (Vangélis Zagoráios, Yiórgos Avissinós, Manólis Manourás), as well as with composers, kemençe and yayli tanbur palyers in Turkey (Ihsan Ozgen, Cinuçen Tanrikorur, Sadun Oksut, Ozcan Korkut, and kanunist Rehas Sagbas) and in Hungary (Csaba Okros, Béla Halmos, and Ujstilus). She has performed with Libana, The EurAsia Ensemble, The Klezmer Conservatory Band, Karavani, Taximi, Sophia Bilides Folk Music Ensemble, Sarkany Hungarian Ensemble, and on t.v., radio, and in festivals in Greece, Turkey, Hungary, the U.S., and Canada. She teaches at the Balkan Music and Dance Camps, the World Music and Dance Camp, in universities, and in her studio in Boston.

Paul Brown: electric & acoustic bass
Paul Brown has been playing music for 27 years, studying bass and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, and oud with Haig Manoukian and Necati Celik in Mendocino, CA. A diverse player, he is equally comfortable in Eastern European folk dance music, Turkish classical, Afro-Cuban funk, traditional Celtic reels, improvisational jazz, as well as original rock and folk music. He is currently adjunct music faculty in the Contemporary Music Department at the College of Santa Fe and house bassist at the Balkan Music and Dance Workshops in Mendocino.

Ari Langer: violin
Ari Langer began studying the violin at age eight, cutting his teeth on classical chestnuts like ìTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Starî and The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. After graduating from a radical left-wing neo-hippie/punk college with a degree in music composition and audio engineering (and getting credit for playing in rock bands), he toured the pubs of Scandinavia and Germany with traditional Irish music outfit Draiocht. In 1998, his mind was blown at his first Balkan Music and Dance Camp, forever changing his life. He has studied Greek violin with Beth Cohen, and has played with Edessa since 1999. He also currently performs with world/electronic music act Lumin, and composes music for independent films.

Brenna MacCrimmon: vocal
Brenna MacCrimmon has been learning and performing Balkan and Turkish music for over 15 years. She spent five and a half years in Istanbul where she studied Rumeli folk songs and performed with Thracian Roman ensemble Karsilama as well as other groups both traditional and experimental. She recently formed Orkestra Keyif with Beth Cohen, Paul Brown and other Turkish music lovers and is considered a "Friend of Ed". In addition to singing and teaching, she knits and gets around town on a bike.