Kasparov is a Russified version of the Armenian surname Gasparyan.
The festival has featured Oriental musicians such as Indian flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, sitarists Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar, the Japanese giant drum ensemble "Kodô", the Tuvinian guttural singers "Huun-Huur-Tu", Tibetan Buddhists monks of Gyuto and Gyume monasteries, the Turkish percussionist Burhan Öçal, the Armenian dudukist Jivan Gasparyan, and the Azeri muqam singer Alim Qasimov.