Richard Nunns QSM (born 1945) is a Māori traditional instrumentalist of Pākehā heritage. He is particularly known for playing the Taonga pūoro and his collaboration with fellow Māori instrumentalist Hirini Melbourne. Since Melbourne's death, he is regarded as the world's foremost authority on Māori instruments.

Nunns was born in 1945 in Napier. He is a Pākehā of Scandinavian descent and was born into a musical family. As a teacher in his late 20s living in the Waikato, he helped build a marae, which fuelled his interest for Māori culture. At the time, he was a jazz musician.

For many years, he performed with Hirini Melbourne (1949–2003), playing traditional Māori instruments. Together, they researched these instruments, which had not been played for over a century, as their use went out of tradition in the 1900s. For many of the instruments, which were still on display in museums, it wasn't even known what technique was used to play them. They are credited with reviving this part of Māori culture. Since Melbourne's death, he is regarded as the world's foremost authority on Māori instruments.

Hirini (Sid) Melbourne (21 July 1949 – 6 January 2003) was a Māori composer, singer, university lecturer, poet and author. He was from Ngāi Tūhoe and Ngāti Kahungunu Maori tribes.

He is known in New Zealand for his work surrounding the revival of Māori culture. A member of Ngā Tamatoa, which petitioned the New Zealand Government to have Maori taught in schools as part of its focus on Maori identity, he also studied at Auckland University and later became the Dean and associate professor of Māori and Pacific development. Melbourne is a significant figure in the revival of the Maori language with dozens of his now classic songs sung in classrooms throughout New Zealand. The power of his melodies and the brilliance of his compositions have still to be widely recognised beyond the classroom however. In the last two decades of his life Hirini’s musical interests extended to a fascination with traditional Maori instruments. Initially intrigued by instruments found only in museum glass cases, he subsequently met ethnomusicologist and performer Richard Nunns and from 1989 onwards the two regularly performed together on marae, and in schools, galleries and concerts. This partnership lead to the release of ‘Te Ku Te Whe’, a CD of original and traditional compositions for a variety of Maori flutes which has been awarded a Gold Disc Award. A second CD together with a DVD ‘Te Hekenga-a-rangi’ was released in 2003. In 2002 Hirini was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato where he had been a lecturer in the Department of Maori. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2003 New Year’s Honours just before his death a week later.

King Kapisi is a New Zealand Hip Hop recording artist. He was the first Hip Hop artist in New Zealand to receive the prestigious Silver Scroll Award at the APRA Awards for Songwriter of the Year for his single Reverse Resistance in 1999, which followed on the popular release of his debut single Sub-Cranium Feeling. Kapisi is of Samoan origin.

He was signed up as an artist with Festival Mushroom Records (NZ). In 2000 he released his critically acclaimed debut album Savage Thoughts, followed by a second album, 2nd Round Testament, released in New Zealand and Australia in 2003. Local sales for both albums hit the gold status mark. King Kapisi also achieved gold with his single U Can't Resist Us, featuring New Zealand Hip Hop icon Che Fu in 2003.

King Kapisi has performed alongside Afrika Bambaata, Janet Jackson, Moby, The Black Eyed Peas, Beastie Boys, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more. He has performed at almost every major music festival and event in New Zealand as well as tours to Australia, Japan, Fiji, Hawaii, Tonga, New York City, London, Toronto, Germany, Ireland, France and Norway.

Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz pianist and composer.

Crispell studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has been a resident of Woodstock, NY since 1977 when she came to study and teach at Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio. She discovered jazz through the music of John Coltrane,Cecil Taylor and other contemporary jazz players and composers as Paul Bley and Leo Smith.

For ten years she was a member of Anthony Braxton's Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble. She has been a member of the Barry Guy New Orchestra as well as a member of the Henry Grimes Trio, the Europea Quartet Noir (with Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser and Joëlle Léandre), and Anders Jormin's Bortom Quintet.

In 2005 she performed and recorded with the NOW Orchestra in Vancouver, Canada and in 2006 she was co-director of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute and a faculty member at the Banff Centre International Workshop in Jazz.

Jeff Henderson is an award-winning chef, bestselling author and popular public speaker. He is also a former felon, having served nearly a decade in prison for drugs. Having run kitchens as Executive Chef at Café Bellagio and Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, he became an inspiration to others.

In 2001, Henderson became the first African-American Chef de Cuisine at Caesars Palace. He eventually became an executive chef at several top restaurants including Café Bellagio, where he worked until 2006.

Henderson found his passion for cooking while incarcerated and turned his life around, a story he recounted in his autobiography, Cooked'. The book was a New York Times bestseller. As of 2007 Will Smith and his production company, Overbrook Entertainment, along with Escape Artists and Columbia Pictures are developing a major motion picture based on the story.

Henderson received national attention on numerous TV and radio programs and print publications including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The Montel Williams Show, CNBC, NPR's All Things Considered, People and USA Today. As a speaker, Henderson makes speaking appearances across the country through his company The Henderson Group.