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 STRING, SKIN, & BREATH Quartet   Genre: Contemporary Global Chamber Groove
     String, Skin, & Breath creates contemporary chamber music rooted in global traditions, blending ancient musical languages with modern expression. Drawing from Latin and North African modes, Ethio-jazz, desert blues, and global folk traditions, the ensemble weaves hypnotic rhythms, spacious improvisation, and rich acoustic textures into immersive performances that feel both timeless and new.
     String, Skin, & Breath exists to create a space for spontaneous, deep-listening musical conversation across cultures—stripping music down to its most elemental, universal ingredients, honoring rhythm, vibration, and breath as the shared language beneath every tradition each member brings. The intention is to craft immersive, unrepeatable performances that move fluidly between meditative stillness and intricate rhythmic interplay, guided by trust and collective intuition rather than rigid arrangement—treating music-making itself as an act of human connection and cross-cultural dialogue.
Band Members
     Misha Khalikulov – An Uzbek-American cellist whose rich, versatile voice has graced stages with Rupa and the April Fishes for many years, alongside a wide range of the Bay Area's finest Western classical, klezmer, and world fusion ensembles.
     Daniel Riera – A Latin-Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer from San Francisco. Fluent on flute, wind-controller, modular synth, and guitar, he's a rising voice in Bay Area groups like Kev Choice and Mara Hruby, and a true child of the Bay's fertile Chicano/Latin rock lineage.
     Aaron Kierbel – A drummer and percussion educator whose rhythmic vocabulary spans 30+ countries, shaped by deep study with master drummers in Ghana, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. He has recorded and toured internationally with Rupa and the April Fishes, The Jazz Mafia, Orchestra Gold, George Brooks, La Misa Negra, and the SF Mime Troupe.
     Arslen Metouii – A young Tunisian virtuoso of the qanun, whose shimmering, intricate playing earned him a residency with the Sound Conversation program in Houston, Texas. The qanun is a type of traditional stringed zither with a thin, flat, trapezoidal wooden soundboard that is central to Middle Eastern, North African, and Eastern Mediterranean music and is famous for its unique melodramatic sound.