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Idil Biret
Idil Biret, a piano prodigy, was born in Ankara, Turkey, and at seven was sent to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. She has received the Lili Boulanger Memorial Award in Boston, the Harriet Cohen / Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal in London, the Polish Cavalry Cross of the Order of Merit, the Adelaide Ristori Prize in Italy, the French Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite and the State Artist distinction in Turkey. She has an uncanny ability to play the same musical passage imitating the compositional styles of, say, Beethoven, Mozart, and Debussy. On occasion this highly trained classical pianist plays keyboard in her brother-in-law’s rock and roll band in Istanbul.
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), composer, conductor, and perhaps the most influential teacher of music of the twentieth century, witnessed cultural devastation in the Second World War. In the battle for civilization, Boulanger viewed the artist as equal to the soldier. She believed true victory cannot be achieved unless artistic creators exemplify and uphold values worth fighting for. She saw herself, her colleagues, and her students as a cultural battalion needed for victory over the forces of chaos and destruction.
Sefik Büyükyüksel
Sefik Büyükyüksel (b. 1944), joined the Turkish army after graduating from Yale. After military service he was an executive at Turkish Airlines, until appointed General Manager of Commercial Affairs of the Association of European Airlines in the early 1980s. Married to Turkish pianist Idil Biret, he became increasingly frustrated with marketing practices in the recording industry, and left the aviation industry to manage his wife’s career, resulting in an extraordinary, far-ranging discography that will delight music lovers for generations to come.
Paweł Ciach
Paweł Ciach previously studied philosophy at Warsaw University and the Polish Academy of Science. Currently, he writes essays on philosophy for a Polish magazine named Nowa Orgia Mysli (New Orgy of Thoughts).
Ross Drago
Ross G. Drago, a Berkeley California artist, is founder of Energy Arts Studio where he has mentored scores of young artists over four decades. His ceramics, murals, constructions, oils and acrylics featuring energy symbols can be seen in public spaces throughout the Bay Area, and his works are in many private collections. Mr. Drago is also a prolific short story writer.
Moeen Farrokhi
Moeen Farrokhi is an Iranian writer who has worked as an editor and translator for literary magazines Dastan, Revayat and Atraf Publication. His works include fiction, essays, and translations from English to Farsi, most recently John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. His third book, Artificial Dreams, was banned in Iran.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American polymath: writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. A leading intellectual of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. We all can learn from his wit and wisdom.
Sallie Fullerton, editor
Sallie Fullerton received their BA in English and French at Wesleyan University and graduated from Iowa University’s Writers’ Workshop with an MFA in poetry. They have been published in Frontier Poetry, Vagabond City, Bennington Review, and Pathetic Literature. They are currently on a Fulbright in Montréal to study the shifting lesbian bar scene from the 1960s to the present day for use in a documentary-poetry book project.
Cumhur Görgün
Cumhur Görgün is a graduate of the Istanbul State Conservatory and the Accademia del Belcanto "Rodolfo Celletti." Currently, he is a residential artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
Alden Mellor Heck
Alden Mellor Heck taught art at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia for forty years. As a teenager she painted at the Académie Julian in Paris, then studied under painter and printmaker Ansei Uchima at Sarah Lawrence. During her teaching career she worked with other outstanding mentors to acquire painting skills: still-life artist and master frame-maker Robert Kulicke in New York, and in Pennsylvania, representational figurative artist Martha Mayer Erlebacher, and art theorist Myron Barnstone. Her work has been exhibited for decades at the Rosenthal Gallery in Philadelphia.
Joseph Lawrence
Joseph Lawrence was a professor of philosophy at Holy Cross University. His scholarly contributions in German Idealism and F. W. J. Schelling are highly regarded. He now resides in France and writes fiction with a philosophical twist.
James Whipple Miller
Author James Whipple Miller was a professor of Comparative Literature and Classical Chinese at UC Berkeley. He served as editor- in-chief of financial and technology publications in Silicon Valley, leading to relationships with investors and technical innovators, in turn leading to decades in start-up business finance and directorships on many boards. He now invests his time in editing and writing projects far removed from finance, business, and Silicon Valley.
Romuald Roman
Author Romuald Roman is a popular Polish writer whose work has never before appeared in English. A member of London-based Zwizek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyźnie (Association of Polish Writers Abroad), he has published six books in Poland: two novels, and four collections of short stories. His life experiences include mountain climber, forester, teacher, skier, and manager at the EPA, where he was an expert in applied industrial toxicology, and UN consultant in Poland and Romania. A consummate storyteller, his writing is enjoyed by American and Polish readers alike.