(Voice/Percussion)

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Sevilay is from the Mediterranean coastal area of Turkey, and spent her childhood immersed in Turkish regional and national music and folklore. Sevilay has been resident in the UK for almost twenty years and has enjoyed bringing the music of her homeland to new audiences. A chance meeting with members of Souk Bab El Louk in a carpet shop led Sevilay to perform with the band, including at Sunrise and Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts. Sevilay has been a regular workshop tutor and performer at MidEastFest UK.

Currently, in addition to being the lead singer of Hazir and Chalguh Chengi, Sevilay also sings with Orient Express, an international ensemble based in a small Wiltshire village. Sevilay started to play Turkish kemenche when she saw herself playing it in a powerful dream. She has since begun to venture into instrument making, carving a classical kemenche from a solid block of English Cherry wood.

Darbuka/Riq/Frame Drums)

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Elvin began his musical career as a teenage guitarist in various bands touring the Welsh music circuit. He moved on to play djembe, congas, bongos and cajon, gigging and recording over a 15 year period. However, when he came across the darbuka playing of Syrian musician Issam Houshan, he knew he’d found exactly the creative outlet he had been looking for.

Elvin has studied intensively with internationally renowned teachers of Arabic percussion. In addition to Hazir and Chalguh Chengi, he has performed with various ensembles including Ommodom, Laylet Amar and Club Cairo. Elvin is also a highly regarded teacher, running drum workshops throughout the UK.

(Clarinet)

Isis is a multi-instrumentalist with a first class degree in Ethnomusicology from SOAS, London and has studied many different styles of traditional music ranging from Eastern European folk, Ethiopian Jazz to Indonesian Gamelan. As a clarinetist, she specialises in Klezmer and Balkan folk styles, having studied with Klezmer maestros Merlin Shepherd and Susi Evans. 

Isis also teaches Balinese Gamelan workshops in Bristol and teaches clarinet privately

(Clarinet/Saxophone/Duduk/Percussion)

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Tom is a self taught multi-instrumentalist playing, among others, the clarinet, saxophone, guitar, percussion, harp and cello. He is a veteran of countless gigging bands playing jazz, swing, Balkan and Middle Eastern music and has worked as a music tutor in SEN environments full time for over ten years organising lessons for groups and for individuals. 

His nomadic spirit has taken him all over the world. Highlights include Egypt, working as a snake charmer and Palestine, working as a farmer and facilitating music in refugee camps before moving back to the UK. 

Tom organises regular creative, music, storytelling, outdoors activities for children and families with his wife Rosie under the name Star in the Apple Stories and is much in demand as a performer with a multitude of bands including Ish Kabibble and Hungarian ‘rock mashup’ outfit Jirzy Mendes.

(Piano Accordion/Piano/Percussion)

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Jo was fortunate to have a music-filled childhood, and studied piano and composition at University before discovering the piano accordion.  A registered Music Therapist and instrumental teacher, Jo has more than two decades of experience of working with music and communication, with people of all ages.  Jo has performed with Malarchy, EastPole Orchestra, Souk Bab el Louk, Mazaj Quartet and Hazir.  Appearances have included at Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, WOMAD, International Fethiye World Music Festival (Turkey), MidEastFest (UK), Muchelsalat (Germany) plus arts centres, pubs, theatres, fields and quays across the UK.

(Dance/Finger Cymbals)

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Anna grew up in a family of performers and producers, immersed in the sounds and songs of Eastern Europe and the SWANA region. She has trained and travelled extensively around the SWANA region, is the UK's leading finger cymbal percussionist, been performing for over 3 decades and been teaching SWANA dance since 1997. She toured England with Turkish fusion band Oojami, shared headlines with bellydance superstar Sonia Ochoa, produced and performed in shows with English/Egyptian band Beledi Blues and highly regarded US dance organisation the Salimpour School, and been invited to perform and teach across the UK, Europe, India and the US. She has been commissioned by the city of London local authorities to perform and teach within communities and outreach organisations including the London 2012 Summer Olympics, CRISIS UK ,The Big Dance and Lambeth Council and been recipient of Arts Council England funding for coordinating and producing the London leg of the Bal Anat 60th Anniversary International Tour in 2018 and ran one of London's first and most critically regarded SWANA dance schools "Small World Bellydance" from 2002-2021 before relocating to Bristol.

(Violin/Percussion)

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Lulu has travelled widely across India and the Balkans, learning Eastern music first hand from masters of the traditions. She has studied many different styles of world music, including Modal/Greek/Turkish music in Crete with Giorgos Papaioannou, Bulgarian music with Atanas Slavov at The Plovdiv Academy of Music and Dance in Bulgaria, Middle Eastern music with Maren Lueg in Turkey, and Klezmer music with Arianne Cohen-adad in Belgium.

Lulu has performed with hip hop/gypsy/ska band Fat Sandwich at UK festivals such as Boomtown, Glastonbury and Secret Garden Party. She played at venues throughout Bristol with klezmer and jazz band Chai-for-all. During her travels Lulu joined the Master Drummers of Rajasthan to play at Indian weddings, and was part of a clown act in Calais refugee camp. She enjoys solo street performances as well as playing with story-tellers and for children’s theatre shows.

Lulu currently performs with Balkan quartet Opa Rosa, and is training as a Suzuki teacher. Her greatest passion is to share Balkan, Middle eastern and folk music from around the world.

Qanoon

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Ufuk learned to play the Kanun in Antalya, Turkey, at a very young age, firmly grounding himself in the tradition of Turkish classical music. He likes to list his time performing complex classical pieces with his older sister as a Kanun Violin duo among his most joyful and formative experiences during the early stages of his musical career. Later, while traveling the world in pursuit of his education and academic career, he has performed in various orchestras and musical groups and brought his love for Turkish and Middle Eastern music to many stages and audiences from Munich to Singapore.

(Oud/Saz/Percussion/Zurna)

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Simon is a multi-instrumentalist, playing oud, saz, guitar, keyboards, frame drums, darbuka, zurna and other pipes and whistles from various traditions. As well as playing with Hazir he has played with Eastpole Orchestra, Club Cairo dance theatre, Mr Dowland’s Midnight and recently toured Palestine and the UK with Chai for All. Simon works as a music therapist for MusicSpace, a Bristol based charity. He is especially interested in the ways we can connect, communicate and express ourselves through collective improvisation in music and other mediums.