Ishmael (12)

Ishmael is an Assyrian-American kanun player extraordinaire. Growing up in the Bay Area, he studied classical piano, and as a teenager he took tympani lessons with San Francisco Symphony tympanist Walter Larew before going on to play timpani with the Santa Clara Philharmonic Orchestras. His study of Middle Eastern music includes training in Turkish music with master kanun player Shenshalar in Istanbul and internationally acclaimed oud player Harant Effendi in Los Angeles.