Concert accordionist Merima Ključo performs internationally as a recitalist and has been guest soloist with many orchestras. Her performances have been broadcast by the BBC and by networks all around Europe, North America and Australia. Ključo composes and arranges, and collaborates with many composers. She has contributed music to the films In the Land of Blood and Honey, written and directed by Angelina Jolie, with a score by the Oscar-winning composer Gabriel Yared, and Jack, by Sergej Kreso, among others, and has performed in the documentary films, Stories of Sevdah, by Robert Golden.

Merima Ključo was invited to perform and compose music (along with the pianist and conductor Tamara Brooks) for Sholem Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears, a one-man play, written and performed by  Theodore Bikel. Produced by the National Jewish Theater, it played in Washington DC, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco and New York.

In 2012, she was invited by the EastWest Theater Company and the renowned Bosnian theater director Haris Pašović to compose and perform Sarajevo Red Line (Sarajevska Crvena Linija) in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Siege of Sarajevo. This piece, which incorporated traditional songs, pop songs, and classical music, was performed on April 6, 2012 to an audience of 11,541 empty red chairs lining the main boulevard in Sarajevo, with one chair for every life lost in the siege. Thousands of people from all walks of life congregated to witness and remember.

Traditional music inspired Ključo from an early age and has brought a unique dimension to her work. As the producer, composer, and arranger for her highly rated album Zumra (Gramofon, 2009/ Harmonia Mundi UK / World Village 2010), which featured the Bosnian traditional singer Amira, she has created a multi-layered classical interpretation of a musical tradition she treasures. Merima Ključo has given workshops and master classes in conservatories and universities all over the world.

Shura Lipovsky
Shura Lipovsky is one of the best known singers of Yiddish/Jewish songs from Europe. A native of the Netherlands, she studied singing at the Rotterdam conservatory with Margaret Honig and Yiddish with Mira Rafalowicz and at New York University, Oxford Summer University and La Maison de la Culture Yiddish/Bibliothèque Medem in Paris. She studied dance at the Dutch institute for folkloristic dancing L.C.A. She now combines dance with Jewish mysticism. In 2005/06 she studied theatre and mime at the renowned L’École Internationale de Theatre de Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

Her work focuses on artistic expression and knowledge of Yiddish culture. She creatively combines her various areas of expertise to promote intercultural and interreligious dialogue. Shura Lipovsky teaches master classes for singers, repertoire classes of Yiddish songs and workshops in Hassidic dance, songs and stories. She has taught and performed at university courses of Yiddish (Oxford, London, Paris and Vilnius), at Limud in England and the Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center Elat Chayyim in Upstate New York, at the International Yiddish Festival and the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, at Klezfests in London, Paris, Montreal, St. Petersburg, and Weimar and in various cities including Stockholm, Budapest, Bremen and Radolfzell - on the occasion of the founding of a World Monastery.

She has worked with outstanding musicians from Europe and the United States and performed the official Memorial Concert of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1993. 
With her singing, dancing, and storytelling, Shura Lipovsky is deeply involved in intercultural and interreligious dialogue. In Germany she taught at the Hedwig-Dransfeld-Haus in Bendorf near Koblenz, where she worked with spiritual leaders from various religions groups. Shura Lipovsky is active as a singer and member of the committee of recommendation for Musicians without Borders (MwB), located in the Netherlands. MwB does peace work through music and dance in countries experiencing ethnic conflicts and war. 

Shura has released a number of recordings including Moments of Jewish Life, Heros and Poets and, most recently, TSART.

Michele Noble (Director/Producer)
Michele Noble is a graduate of USC film school and is a screenwriter, film director and producer.  She grew up in Los Angeles and early on dreamed of making films to both educate and entertain. 

Journey 4 Artists  is her third creative collaboration with Theo Bikel, executive producer/partner, Paul G. Alberghetti  and director of photography, Geza Sinkovics who filmed her debut feature film, Runaway Dreams written by her mentor, John Hopkins.  It is Noble's second film project with multi-talented editor, Travis Rust. Michele Noble enjoys working with many of the same artists project to project; she is grateful and celebrates their productive shorthand, profound shared understanding and continued  innovation as a team. Currently, Michele Noble is working on her documentary, Theo Bikel: A Self Portrait.

Michele Noble is also a political activist raising her voice in protest against injustice, inequality, poverty, racism, and War.  She believes Journey 4 Artists demonstrates, illuminates and proclaims the ideals of political, social and religious activism, in this case, through world music.  By making this film, Noble was able to preserve folk songs sung in so many languages of so many cultures rarely heard or professionally performed or filmed in this way.  She feels to capture and honor such incredible world music performances was a once in a lifetime privilege.

In a recent interview about the film, Michele Noble  stated, "Theo, Shura, Merima, and Tamara’s deep understanding of our shared world and their mission to present a better way in which we can live together in it was truly informative and inspiring for me.   When they played all of these songs of different cultures and in different languages, I was struck by how familiar the songs seemed. They were speaking to me and surprisingly also connecting with my young film crew on an intense level as if they were songs from a distant home, a common place, living somehow secretly deep inside our souls. I had never experienced that before."

Travis Rust has been editing feature films, documentaries and network programming for the past 20 years. His editing helped secure a 2012 theatrical release for the feature film Footprints, and garner the Audience Award for Best Short at the Pan African Film Festival for the 2003 film The Sacrifice.  

As a musician himself, he was able to incorporate his passion for storytelling and music into his craft when editing, Journey 4 Artists. This is the second film collaboration with writer/director/producer Michele Noble. In 2004, Rust edited Noble's experimental film, New York Summer Project (aka the Revolution) with Kathryn Erbe (Law & Order Criminal Intent) James Roday (Psych), and Adam Rothenberg (Ripper Street).

Travis has honed his keen sense of storytelling on such network and reality shows as Last Comic Standing and The Real Housewives of New York City, in addition to a variety of programming for networks like NBC, FOX, The WB, Bravo, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, TLC, Discovery and Women’s Entertainment. He has also designed and edited several dynamic video presentations for large exhibits of Audrey Hepburn in Berlin, Tokyo, Rome and Los Angeles benefitting the nonprofit, The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.

Travis Rust attended Scottsdale Community College, where he directed and edited his own award winning film, What Seemed As Love, which went on to take the Best Dramatic Short honor at the Southwest Film and Video Festival.

With a career spanning thirty-seven years, John Pratt has contributed to the music industry on many levels. Initially as a performer, singing across America and later as a recording artist whose music has been heard in over thirty countries. His most recent album, "Turn the Page" (B4Jmusic Records) received critical success around the world. Simultaneously, John has been scoring feature films, numerous television series and telefilms with an extensive list on his ever growing resume.

John studied Film Scoring at UCLA and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Seeing music visually was a natural process for him creatively so the transition to film in the latter part of his career was a given. As a songsmith, John wrote over 100 song in the nineties specifically for network movie of the weeks, singing on over 75 of them. Some of these have actually spawned cult followings. His latest scoring work can be seen on the National Geographic Channel's 10 hour docudrama, Rock Stars and the upcoming independent feature film comedy, R.A, Resident Advisor (Pense Productions 2013). Currently, John Pratt is composing music for a number of CBS television shows (Dr. Phil,
Entertainment Tonight, The Doctors and Rachel Ray) through Diamond/Mine Productions.

Having owned recording studios in the past and present, John is well versed in the production and recording process, Learning his craft in the days of analog and 2 inch open reel tape up to the most current digital platforms, it is here that his assets as Music Producer for Journey 4 Artists could truly be utilized. He determined that a union of the two formats would be essential to deliver the audio quality of such a historic event. The task of assembling a quarter of a million dollars of the finest vintage gear and then using the latest digital technology on the film set was incorporated and the results are stunning.