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Hossein Omoumi was born in 1944, in Isfahân, Iran, and began his musical education singing with his father. At age 14, he started studying the Ney, the traditional reed flute of Iran.

While studying architecture, he was accepted as a tutorial student at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Tehran, and worked with great masters Mahmud Karimi and Farhâd Fakhreddini. He then worked with the great master of ney Hassan Kassâei.

Omoumi's performance career has included appearances at many of major festivals and concert halls in Europe and the United States, including San Francisco's World Music Festival, UCLA's Schoenberg Hall and Wadsworth Theater, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the World Music Institute and Asia Society in New York, and Theatre de la Ville in Paris.

- omoumi.com

I Wayan Sinti was born January 1, 1943 in the village of Banjar Dauh, Ubung Kaja, near Denpasar on the Island of Bali. He is the son of the late Mangku Ketut Sadra and Ni Made Rumik. He began his study of Balinese vocal and instrumental music in his village in 1957, because his parents could not afford to send him to government school. However, in 1961, he was accepted to the new high school for the performing arts, KOKAR, which had recently opened in Denpasar. He graduated from KOKAR in 1964 and was appointed a teaching position there because he graduated at the top of his class.

In 1974, Pak Sinti was invited to teach at the Center for World Music in Berkley, CA were he spent 2½ months teaching various forms of Balinese music. In 1978 he returned to the U.S. for four years to study ethnomusicology and teach Balinese music at San Diego State University, where he graduated with an MA in music. In 1985 he again returned to the U.S., this time to train the American gamelan Sekar Jaya for their performance in Bali as the first foreign gamelan to perform in at the Bali arts festival. His relationship with Sekar Jaya continued in 1996 when he spent ten months in San Francisco composing music for their performance of the Ramayana in collaboration with Abinaya South Indian Dance.

In 1994, Pak Sinti created a new type of gamelan ensemble called Manikasanti, which means "jewel for peace." Manikasanti features a new tuning system that allows for the playing of various Balinese modes and musical scales, and was inspired by his long study of ritual vocal and instrumental music.

Pak Sinti completed a residency at the University of Washington, School of Music, as visiting artist where he taught Balinese vocal and gamelan music. During his time at the University of Washington he also created a new form of gamelan called Siwa Nada which was constructed with the help of his students. Today he resides just outside of Denpasar with his wife Cokorda Istri Nilawati, an accomplished dancer and arja (Balinese opera) singer. Together they have five children and six grandchildren, all talented dancers and musicians.

- jackstraw.org/programs/asp/ASP_feature.html