MARK CAIN   Musician - Instrument Maker – Educator
Western Australian saxophonist, multi-wind player, instrument maker and composer Mark Cain is one of his state’s most experienced musicians, performing and conducting workshops in schools and communities both in Australia and overseas. As a multi-instrumentalist and instrument maker he co-founded the innovative concept group AC/PVC in 1987; toured internationally with Nova Ensemble; performed in the national Musica Viva schools program for more than two decades (Nova Ensemble and Ozmosis) and over a similar period has worked nationally as a solo schools performer with Nexus Arts, Victoria, playing instruments of his own invention. During this span he has performed and conducted teacher in-service sessions in countless schools both in city and regional Australia. In 2014 and 2015 Cain was Musician in Residence for Tura New Music in indigenous communities on the Dampier Peninsula, Kimberley, WA.

Mark Cain plays a cornucopia of wind and percussion instruments, including saxophones, clarinets, flutes and a variety of self-invented and ethnic wind and percussion instruments.

ESFANDIAR SHAHMIR - Persian ney and daf

Trained under Master Bijan Kamkar in Daf and Pasha Hanjani in Ney, Esfandiar Shahmir, an Iranian musician obtained his BA in acting at University of Arak. Amongst the highlights of his musicianship are playing at Homay & Mastan Ensemble from 2004, touring in USA, Europe and other extensive areas. Esfandiar is one of the founding members of Eastwinds giving life to music with traditional Iranian instruments such as ney and daf.

KRISTIINA MAALAPS - Voice, jaws harps

SAEGUSA YOSHITAKA (Sanshi) - Didgeridoo

STEVE BARNES - String instruments (guitar, guizouki)
Steve Barnes is a veteran player of assorted plucked string instruments in a range of styles and bands including various Irish pub bands in the USA and Australia, original folk/acoustic acts and world music line-ups, playing pretty much all of the major folk/acoustic festivals around Australia at one time or another. He also served for seventeen years as the Artistic Director of the fabulous Fairbridge Festival, and when he’s not doing those things he’s a research geologist with the CSIRO in Perth. His job in the band is to play the groove and not get in the way. He plays a custom 6 string acoustic guitar made by Scott Wise from Margaret River, and an 8-string guitar-bouzouki hybrid made by Graham MacDonald from Canberra, tuned GDAE.