Born into a family of athletes in one of the most isolated and conflict-ridden nations on the planet, Benhur was always attracted to western music and languages. He discovered his love for Opera at age 4 via cartoon programs, and started performing at the age of 18 with a music project that was comprised of self-motivated and mostly self-taught young Eritrean classical musicians in Asmara. He met American Voices during an American Music Abroad Tour in 2018, and after John Ferguson posted video of his singing on social media, he immediately received invitations to study in a summer program in Italy.

He came to the United States as an AV Scholar in late 2019 and leveraged his talent into generous  scholarship to attend Oberlin Conservatory as a music major studying under the tutelage of Salvatore Champagne. In 2020, he won 3rd Prize in the College Singers Competition of Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis. Benhur’s opera performances in the U.S. Menotti’s ‘Amelia al Ballo’ and Handel’s Acis & Galatea with the Oberlin Opera Theater and as Simone in Puccini’s ‘Gianni Schicchi’ with the Janeic Opera Company at Brevard Music Center. Benhur aims to become a professional opera singer, and support cultural exchange and enrichment between African and Western cultures and their peoples.

Raised in Lebanon of mixed Armenian/Lebanese background, Lori was one of the first participants in the YES Academy Lebanon youth orchestra in 2010. She continued in the program until receiving a scholarship in 2017 to study at American University in Washington, D.C., where she recently graduated Summa Cum Laude. She continues playing in community orchestras while completing her fellowship at Forward Risk and Intelligence. She plans to continue graduate study in the U.S. in the field of International Relations Theory. As an AV Scholar, she receives support for expenses not covered by her fellowship.

24-year old Elham Fanous is one of the leading pianists of his home country and of his generation. His life’s work is to embody a positive face of his nation’s future and to provide hope to musicians and artists living under threats to their creative expression all around the world.

Elham has performed as a soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2013. He performed at the Library of Congress for the 2017 Anne Frank Awards Ceremony. He has also played for members of the diplomatic corps of Australia, China, Germany, Italy, and Korea. He has performed international dignitaries in Washington DC through the Embassy Series: Uniting People Through Music Diplomacy.

His outreach performances in New York include solo recitals for the West Point Academy in the class of 2004 memorial service, NYU Forum on Law, Culture and Society, the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale, and Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.

Elham has been awarded full scholarships to participate in notable summer festivals including Classical Bridge (performances at Steinway Hall and Merkin Concert Hall), the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Hunter College, the Chopin to Gorècki piano festival in Poland, and others.

He was the 3rd prize winner in the Golden Key International Piano Competition in Frankfurt in 2012 and the winner of Hunter College Concerto Competition. He has also performed as a solo recitalist in Holland, Italy, and Poland.

Elham has been profiled on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition by host Renee Montagne, in BBC, on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, and in the media in Britain, India and Pakistan. He is a recipient of Young Musical Scholars Foundation and Anna Sosenko Assist Trust Fund. He is the subject of a German television documentary (ZDF tivi).

Prior to his arrival at Manhattan School of music in 2019, Elham trained at Hunter College), studying piano performance, composition, and music theory as well as a full range of academic subjects. Elham also studied at the Franz Liszt Conservatory of Music in Weimar, Germany.

Elham recently completed his Master’s degree in piano performance at Manhattan School of music under instruction of Philip Kawin. Despite growing up in a city where he and his family were threatened and his music school was regularly attacked, he has held fast to his dream of a career as a concert pianist and has excelled in the U.S. He is currently planning to begin his DMA studies in the U.S. in 2022. Elham first participated in an American Voices program in 2010.

Milad Yousufi was born in 1995 into civil war in his home country. At that time, music was completely banned. At the age of two he started drawing and he drew the piano keys on paper and pretended to play.

Milad Yousufi is a pianist, composer, conductor, poet, singer, painter and calligrapher. Yousufi’s work is deeply inspired by his country and culture.

After seeking asylum in the United States, Yousufi was awarded a full scholarship to attend Mannes School of Music as an undergraduate and studied piano with the world-renowned pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Yousufi is under Simone Dinnerstein’s mentorship and considers Dinnerstein as one of his great inspirations. Yousufi has graduated from Mannes School of Music in spring 2020 and currently pursuing masters degree in composition at Brooklyn College.

Yousufi has had the opportunity to compose for The New York Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, premiered at Lincoln Center; Refugee Orchestra Project; Kronos Quartet, premiered in Carnegie Hall; Worcester Music, South High Community School Brass Band, Terezin Music Foundation, premiered in Boston Symphony Hall. Refugee Orchestra, premiered at the Barbican Center in London, Pianist Yael Weiss for 32 Bright Clouds: (Beethoven Conversation Around the World), Winsor Music, Trio Solisti, Burncoat High School Orchestra, Worcester Chamber Music Society, Upcoming commissions include The VISION Collective, Cellist Leo Eguchi, Choral piece for Old Ship Church Musaics of the Bay and Raleigh Civic Symphony Orchestra. Milad Yousufi is currently artistic advisor of The VISION Collective, became an ambassador for Arium TV and joined the Board of Directors of Musaics of the Bay.

As an ethnomusicologist Yousufi is working on publishing 12 volumes of Central Asian Folk Music for the next generations in his home country.

As a refugee artist Yousufi has a dream to make a difference in the future of music in his home country and contribute to American culture and the world.

Awjalan was born in the Kurdish region of Syria (Rojava) from where he and his family had to flee to the Kurdistan region of Iraq during the Syrian civil war. Despite the hardships of living in the Darashakan refugee camp over 20 miles from Erbil, he has excelled in hip hop dance and has participated in the YES Academy Erbil program for the past 5 years. He currently studies Information Science at the Noble Institute of Technology from where he plans to graduate in 2021. He recently won the first place in Iraq innovation Hackathon Prize 2019 for App development in the field of plastic recycling and has also been a prize winner at the Unbreakable National Hip Hop Dance Battles in Erbil.