NIGHAT CHAUDHRY: Dancing Queen Nighat Chaudhry, Folk and Classical Dance Performer is a celebrity who is PhD in Dance, stands as a beacon of excellence in South Asian cultural and artistic heritage. Renowned for her unparalleled mastery of classical and folk dance, she has collaborated with many national and international legendary artists creating mesmerizing performances that transcend boundaries. Her artistic journey is adorned with numerous prestigious awards, recognizing her as a trailblazer in reviving and promoting traditional art forms. With a passion Nighat Chaudhry continues to inspire audiences worldwide, embodying the essence of elegance, grace, and artistic brilliance.
FAISAL MALIK: Faisal Malik is an arts manager, creator, founding Artistic Director and founding President of Thespianz Foundation. He has directed 109 theatre plays, 71 dance performances and 712 workshops for teaching art and cultural performance. He is the Fellow in Art Management Fellowship Program at John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts – Washington DC by State Department and worked with Chicago Opera Theatre. He is the fellow of Arthink South Asia where he has worked with leading European Dance Company Shasha Waltz and Guest in Berlin, Worked with 100 years old Munich’s Theatre Company in Munich. He was Chief Guest at Royal National Belly – Warsaw Poland. He has launched many Social Awareness Campaigns. He introduced Thespianz Puppetry in which he provide healthy but lesson-oriented entertainment to Adults and Children. He is also an expert of Social Theatre for Mobilizing the communities.
LUCIA THOMAS: Lucia Thomas is a multi-instrumentalist, music educator and folklorist based in Chicago. Her musical interests span the globe, and she has performed throughout Europe, in India and Mexico, as well as toured extensively in the U.S. with various projects. She is a two-time Fulbright awardee, which she used to study folk music of West Bengal, India. Co-founder and artistic director of the Chicago Folklore Ensemble, which aims to celebrate immigrant communities by gathering and performing oral histories and traditional music from master immigrant musicians, she has toured major venues, festivals and universities in the Chicago area and beyond. Lucia's upcoming publication is a collection of Rabindranath Tagore's poetry in an artful poetry/album pairing called "Praner Alap," which is to be released on Innova Records. In 2019 she released an album with an all female band called "Baba Yaga's Stew." Lucia is the co-author of a 2016 Chicago Folklore Ensemble release called “The World in Chicago,” which is an album/book pairing of music and oral histories from Argentina, Thailand, Ghana, Jordan, and Serbia. Lucia has collaborated with great Chicago jazz musicians such as Orbert Davis, Hindustani classical musicians like Hindol Chattapadyay and Lyon Leifer, and Arabic musicians like Wanees Zarour and Ronnie Malley. She is now pursuing a solo career as a Hindustani violinist, under the guidance of her guru, maestro Indradeep Ghosh. She is the string conductor of Ravinia's El Sistema Middle School Orchestra. Driven by a strong commitment to human connection, Lucia bridges cultural divides with music, building on its age-old foundation of honoring human commonalities, challenging injustice, and celebrating everyday beauty.
YOUSUF KERAI: Yousuf learned to sing and play the harmonium at the age of eight under the tutelage of the late Master Babu Khan. At the age of sixteen, he was accepted as a student of the late tabla maestro Ustad Khursheed Hussain and has been playing tabla for the last 25 years, even though he has spent eight of those years in the U.S.A. for the sake of higher education, acquiring a B.A. in Mathematics and a Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics (MAT) from Bennington College. Yousuf founded Tarz Group, an ensemble of classically trained musicians, committed to helping young listeners delight in their South Asian musical heritage. Tarz Group held many live concerts and released an album titled, The Essence of South Asia, which is available internationally on digital music platforms. Yousuf most recently served as Associate Professor of Practice at Habib University where he taught courses in mathematics, history of mathematics, music & mathematics, and South Asian music. He was the Founding Director of the Center for South Asian Music at Habib University, offering a South Asian Music Minor, where students could learn musical skills and take courses on music theory and history.
