About:

Kinan Azmeh has been hailed as a “virtuoso” and “intensely soulful” by The New York Times and “spellbinding” by the New Yorker. His distinctive sound has gained him international recognition as a clarinetist and composer. Azmeh was recently named composer-in-residence with Classical Movements for the 2017-2018 season. Azmeh has been touring the world as soloist, composer, and improviser, with appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic, and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra at the opening concert of the Damascus Opera House in his native Syria. He has toured as member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, with whom he was awarded a Grammy in 2017. His extensive discography and filmography include several works for solo, orchestra, and chamber music, film, live illustration, and electronics, and an album with his New York Arabic/jazz quartet, The Kinan Azmeh City Band. He serves as artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Players. A graduate of New York’s Juilliard School, Azmeh earned his doctorate degree in music from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2013.