The quintet will perform original compositions as well as traditional ethnic World Music. Their music will blend eclectic musical instruments working unconventionally together to tell mystical musical stories.

About Baran Yildiz
Baran Yildiz is a Sydney & Blue Mountains based multi-instrumentalist and renowned as one of Australia's most talented handpan players. Baran has a Turkish background, and his music combines melodies and rhythms of the Anatolia, Middle East and Africa with a modern touch on the hand pan, piano and various percussion instruments. Originally trained in classical piano and jazz drums, Baran has gradually become a contemporary world music composer. Baran has released two albums: ‘Interbeing’ (September 2019) and Bridging Worlds (October 2023), blending various modern world and neo-classical music elements to present enchanting instrumental soundscapes. Baran pushes the boundaries of the handpan instrument through experimenting with different melodic layers and collaborating with other leading instrumentalists. He is regularly invited to perform at the prominent world music venues and festivals across Australia and around the world. Aside from music, Baran is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Engineering, UNSW where he is passionate about tackling global climate challenges through his research and teaching in renewable energy technologies.

About Stuart Vandegraaff
Stuart Vandegraaff is a multi-instrumentalist performer, composer, educator and bandleader based on Yuin country near Bega NSW. Prominent in the Sydney scene where he lived for 25 years, he has performed and recorded widely in a diverse range of musical settings particularly in intercultural and improvised music. Classically trained, with an undergraduate in Jazz and a master’s degree in Arabic music, Stuart is a saxophone specialist (SATB) who also performs nays (Arabic and Turkish flutes), clarinets, and a variety of other woodwinds. Stuart continues to tour nationally and internationally to Europe, the Middle East, USA, Brazil and India to perform, study, teach and record with recognised world exponents. Aside from his work with Baran Yildiz, he is bandleader of the Routes Trio and SEV and director of Masha’s Legacy, member of the Zela Margossian Quintet, a Musica Viva artist and educator, and performs with the orchestra of the Andalus Arabic Choir, is co-founder of the Clube Nacional de Chorinho na Australia, and is a frequent collaborator in a range of jazz, traditional, contemporary and hybrid musical forms. He was also a lead performer with the bands of the Royal Australian Navy and NSW Police Band. A published author and strong advocate for community music, Stuart hosted local and national radio programs in Sydney for almost a decade, while also participating in and promoting community music-making at all levels, particularly with the Brazilian, Arabic and Indian communities, and as a reviewer for e-zine Loudmouth.

About Alex Apt
Alex Apt is a versatile multi-instrumentalist mastering the oud, guitar, and percussion.
His diverse repertoire spans across Arabic classics, modern Western-Eastern fusion pieces, and his own original compositions. Alex's music is a captivating blend of cultural traditions and contemporary creativity, showcasing his deep musicality and unique artistic vision.

About Kate Hadders
Kate Hadders studied cello at Adelaide University, then moved to Sydney and pursued post graduate studies at Australian Institute of Music (AIM) in Sydney. During and after her studies, she played with many singer/songwriters in Sydney's Inner West music scene, making studio recordings and performing at folk and world music festivals all over Australia. Collaborators included Bridie O'Brien, Athron MacCann, and Miriam Lieberman (in an early project called “Naked Without My Cello”), and a punk group called The Waiter's Tantrum Fantasy (playing an electric strap-on cello), and Kate also made her own album of original music. After a 2-year stint in the Netherlands, where she joined a 7-piece Persian world music group Babak O Doestan (“Babak And Friends” in Persian), Kate returned to Australia and made the Blue Mountains her home. She has been a member of the Blue Mountains String Quartet for the past 10 years, and joined the Baran Yildiz Quartet in early 2026. She lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two kids."

About Adem Yilmaz 
Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1992, Adem Yilmaz is a highly renowned percussionist of Kurdish origin. He began playing his first instrument, the Darbuka (Goblet Drum) at the age of eight. 

Having Mr. Izzet Kizil, one of Turkey's most recognised and internationally known percussionists as his teacher, Yilmaz specialised in a variety of eastern percussion instruments and found himself performing with many bands as well as being involved in many of those bands’ album recordings.

Since migrating to Sydney, Australia in 2014, Adem established himself, within a short period of time, as a versatile and sought-after percussionist and has been involved as a key member in many popular Sydney bands such as the Aria-nominated bands, Zela Margossian Quintet and Eishan Ensemble, with whom he has toured internationally and nationally. He also performs with Masha's Legacy, The Catholics, Chris Cody and is involved in many studio projects such as Visions of Nar, an ABC commissioned album by Zela Margossian and Jeremy Rose.