Violinist, sometime violist, improviser, composer-arranger, performance artist, occasional songwriter and ethnomusicologist, Parmela Attariwala is a self-confessed music junkie, who finds her creative home in the Attar Project. Initially conceived a s a vehicle to integrate the eclectic strands of Attariwala's own musical background, the Attar Project engages artists across musical genres and artistic practices in virtuousic collaborations that maintain the essence of each while challenging the boundaries between them. She ahas toured and recorded with an array of musicians including Carla Bley, Ravi Naimpally, James Campbell, Anthony Braxton, John Taylor, Ernst Reijsjeger, Ed Hanley and Quinsin Natchov. She has also collaborated extensively -- as a composer, musician and movement artist -- with a diverse array of choreographers whose style ranges from bharata-natyam to contact to butoh.
Versatile percussionist Shawn Mativetsky performs in a variety of musical genres wit hdynamism and skill. Equally at home in Western classical and contemporary/new music, Indian classical music, and world music, Shawn also composes and performs music for dance and theatre. He is active in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances across Canada and internationally. Fascinated by the possibilities of combining his dual bckgrounds in Western classical and Hindustani music, Shawn has been regularly commissioning and performing new works for tabla since 1999 and has been playing with the Attar Project since 2006. His solo CD, "Payton MacDonald: Works for Tabla" was released in 2007 on the Atma Classique label. Shawn Mativetsky is a ganda-band disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai of Benares tabla gharana and has also studied tabla with Bob Becker. Shawn holds a Master's degree in music from McGill University.
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