Bahman Rajabi was born in 1939 in Rasht. He started playing the tombak, Iranian classical percussion, in early childhood by listening to and observing the tombak-players. He regards the late master Amir Naser Eftetah, the great Iranian tombak-player, as his most influential teacher, although he considers himself as a student of all past and contemporary great masters of this instrument. Bahman Rajabi has made many notable innovations in the art of playing the tombak and introduced a variety of virtuosic performance techniques. He is also an author and a researcher. His publications include a scholarly book, in Persian, on the tombak from technical and sociological perspectives entitled Tombak and Aspects of Rhythm. He has published several pedagogical books for the tombak instruction for the elementary, intermediate, advanced and superior stages by using a one-line notation system. Rajabi has been widely performing solo concerts accompanied by lectures over the past 30 years to introduce the tombak. He is also an excellent orator and a mountaineer. He believes that a modern performer of the tombak must be a scholar, a thinker and a researcher as well as a good player.
Farbod Yaddollahi Ardestani was born in 1967 in Tehran. He grew up in a family who highly favored art. His father, a violinist and his grandmother, a tar-player, encouraged him to begin learning the tombak at the age of 11. Having studied various styles of tombak performances, he entered Bahman Rajabi's class and could successfully study all pedagogical stages (elementary, intermediate, advanced and superior) with him. Farbod, in addition to playing the tombak, also performs the tar. He feels honored to accompany his master in performances and tombak duets. He has got his BA in Sports and won the first prize of the Asian championship Games in Boating in Japan.