Jahaziel Antonio Arrocha Porras began playing tenor saxophone at age 14 as part of the high school band in his hometown of Gonzalillo, Panama. Seeing jazz musicians perform at the Panama Jazz Festival over the years fueled his desire to be a performer. In early 2007, he was awarded a full scholarship to Berklee's Five-Week Summer Performance Program along with the Danilo Perez Foundation Musical Studies Scholarship. Once at Berklee, he applied for and won a Presidential Scholarship.

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Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, self-taught drummer and songwriter Andre Brown attended the John Sayles School of Fine Arts in Schenectady before coming to Berklee. His musical career began at age 4, when he started performing at church. Brown has since cofounded the Schenectady High School Drum Line, directed the school's Inspiration Gospel Choir, received numerous awards, and won competitions at the Apollo Theater as a member of the Hamilton Hill Street Steel Drum Band.

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Drummer Joseph C. Dyson Jr. of New Orleans, Louisiana was introduced to music through his family at the age of 2. His formal music studies began at McDonogh #15 Creative Arts Magnet Elementary, from which he went on to graduate from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Along the way, he also participated in the Project Prodigy Summer Music Camp, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp, Berklee's Five-Week Summer Performance Program and Jazz Workshop, Port Townsend Jazz Workshop, Tipitina's Internship, and the New Jazz School Jazz Camp. He has performed internationally with jazz musicians such as Donald Harrison, Ellis Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, and George Porter Jr., among others.

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New Orleans native Malcolm Armand Parson began studying violin and classical music at age 8. As a recipient of the Louis Armstrong Foundation's 1997 Golden Horn Award, he received his first personal violin; upon moving to cello, he was awarded a cello by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. As a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Talent Development Program, Parson studied and performed for dignitaries, music industry executives, and artists, and has performed with numerous orchestras and ensembles, often as the featured soloist.

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Born in Moscow, violinist Ada Pasternak relocated with her family to the United States at the age of 6. It was at that young age that she began studying violin with her aunt, New York Philharmonic violinist Asya Meshberg. She continued her studies with Albert Markov at the Manhattan School of Music, and went on to win grand prize in her first music competition in 2001. She has gone on to win numerous competitions and awards, including the Concerto Competition at the Manhattan School of Music.

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Puerto Rican flutist Enrique "Kalani" Trinidad moved from Dallas, Texas to Puerto Rico at the age of 4, where he began listening to the music of his father, pianist Richard Trinidad, as well as that of Chick Corea and Antonio Carlos Jobim. He quickly developed an interest in playing music, and picked up the flute. As a composer and leader of a quartet, he has received recognition from the government of Puerto Rico for his accomplishments. Trinidad is currently preparing to record his first album of original compositions and arrangements.

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