Kinan Azmeh (, born June 10, 1976, in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

), is a

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

player and composer of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

based in New York City. Performing with orchestras such as the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

, the

Seattle Symphony The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra also serves as the accompanying orchestra for the Seattle Opera. History Beginnings The orchest ...

, the

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestras operated under the auspices of Bayerischer Rundf ...

, the

West–Eastern Divan Orchestra The West–Eastern Divan Orchestra is based in Seville, Spain, and consists of musicians from countries across the Spanish world and the Middle East—of Egyptian, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, and Hispanic bac ...

, or the Syrian Symphony Orchestra, he has played as a soloist of classical works as well as of contemporary compositions.

Life and career

Born in Damascus, Syria in 1976, Azmeh began to play the clarinet at age six. Originally taking lessons on the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

, he switched to an even-handed instrument that left-handed players did not play too differently from right-handed players. Azmeh studied at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus. At the

University of Damascus A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, he majored in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, at the same time pursuing his studies at the conservatory. Azmeh received his master's degree and graduate diploma in music from the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 1997, he was the first Arab musician to win the first prize in the Nicolai Rubinstein International Youth competition in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Azmeh is based in

, where he received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 2013 at the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

with

Charles Neidich Charles Neidich (born 1953 in New York City) is an American classical clarinetist, composer, and conductor. Early career A native New Yorker of Russian and Greek descent, Charles Neidich began his clarinet studies with his father, Irving Neidich ...

. From there, he regularly traveled to Damascus, where he played in a Syrian chamber group and has given numerous concerts and workshops. These trips have ended, however, since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. In March 2017, Azmeh made international news, because he was unable to return to New York City for some time, following the issuance of

Executive Order 13769 Executive Order 13769, titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, labeled the "Muslim ban" by Donald Trump and his supporters and critics alike, and commonly known as such, or commonly referred to as the ...

by U.S. President Donald Trump. In 2022, clarinet maker

Henri Selmer Henri Selmer Paris is a French enterprise, manufacturer of musical instruments based at Mantes-la-Ville near Paris. Founded in 1885, it is known as a producer of professional-grade woodwind and brass instruments, especially saxophones, clarinet ...

in Paris published a 160-page notebook for creative exercise and playing on their new clarinet type ''Muse,'' written in collaboration with Azmeh.

Ensembles and performances

In 1995, Azmeh joined the Damascus-based pop music band ''Kulna Sawa'' (Arabic for: ''All of us together''), founded by composer and songwriter Iyad Rimawi and other young Syrian musicians. They produced two albums and were quite successful in the Middle East. In 2003, Azmeh, singer

Dima Orsho Dima Orsho (; b. 1975, Damascus, Syria) is a Syrian-American mezzosoprano singer and composer. She studied first at the Damascus Higher Institute for Music and later at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Since 2003, she has been a member of the ...

oud The oud ( ; , ) is a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of instruments), usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have ...

player

Issam Rafea Issam Rafea, also written Essam Rafea (, born 1971 in Kuwait), is a Syrian musician, music director and composer, noted for his compositions and performances on the Arabic oud, as former director of the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music ...

and others started the Syrian

world fusion "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical category pose obstacles to a u ...

band '' Hewar'' (Arabic for ''dialogue''). On his website, Azmeh describes ''Hewar'' as "an attempt to transcend the barriers of cultural disparities and misconceptions, and establish a civilized communication which builds on what brings humans closer together rather than separates them."Hewar
, on Azmeh's personal website He claims that ''Hewar'''s music draws from a variety of influences, from both the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

and the

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

. In addition, Azmeh plays with the New York City-based City Band and with the band Neolexica.Be Here Now - Kinan Azmeh and Dinuk Wijeratne Down San Francisco Way.
Sequenza, 16 August 2010. As a student at Juilliard, Azmeh co-founded Neolexica with pianist Dinuk Wijeratne. In 2009, Azmeh played at the ''Arabesque Festival'' at the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Kinan Azmeh: A Syrian Frequent Flier With Clarinet in Hand.
NPR, 7 March 2009. He has also played with the

Syrian National Symphony Orchestra The Syrian National Symphony Orchestra (, ) is the national symphony orchestra of Syria. Its home venue is the Damascus Opera House, and many of its members have been educated at the Higher Institute for Music in the same cultural complex on ...

, debuting a clarinet concerto written especially for him by Syrian composer

Zaid Jabri Zaid Jabri () is a Syrian-Polish composer, conductor and music educator, who works at the intersection of Western and Middle Eastern musical traditions. He is one of the representatives of the so-called second generation of Syrian composers of ...

at the opening of the

Damascus Opera House The Damascus Opera House (formerly Dar al-Assad for Culture and Arts) () is the national opera house of Syria. Inaugurated on 7 May 2004, it is located in central Damascus, on the Umayyad Square. History Damascus already had an opera house in ...

. In addition, he performed and recorded with

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Moses Barenboim (; born 15 November 1942) is an Argentines, Argentine-Israeli classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin, who also has Spain, Spanish and State of Palestine, Palestinian citizenship. From 1992 until January 2023, Bare ...

's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, as well as with

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...

Silk Road Ensemble Silkroad, formerly the Silk Road Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and ...

that won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for the album ''Sing Me Home'' in 2017. Having performed frequently in Germany, for example in Hamburg's

Elbphilharmonie The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. The new construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave ...

, Azmeh is also a frequent guest and workshop mentor of the Morgenland Festival in

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in Lower Saxony in western Germany. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168 ...

, Germany. In 2019, he published his double CD "''Uneven Sky''", with Yo-Yo Ma as guest artist on cello and the

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) is a German broadcast orchestra based in Berlin. The orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families ...

, presenting works by Syrian contemporary composers

Kareem Roustom Kareem Roustom () is a Syrian-American composer, music director, and university teacher, noted mainly for his compositions of contemporary classical music, film scores and his collaboration with pop music artists. Among other musical ensembles, h ...

, Zaid Jabri, Dia Succari as well as his own compositions. This album was awarded the prestigious 2019 Klassik Opus Award in Germany. For Azmeh's 2021 album ''Flow'', his compositions were arranged by Wolf Kerschek and recorded with the Hamburg-based

NDR bigband NDR may refer to: Computing * Non delivery report, a return email message to a sender indicating failed message delivery * Network Data Representation, an implementation of the OSI model presentation layer * Network detection and response, detect ...

. A review in the German jazz magazine ''Jazzthetik'' commented on the opening track: “Above all, Azmeh reveals the essence of his music in this prologue: It's not Arabia, not jazz, not classical, it's all of that - the elements flow into each other." For May 2024, the German NDR bigband announced concerts in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, featuring Azmeh and music from his album ''Flow''. In June 2022, the Morgenland Festival presented Azmeh’s composition ''Songs for Days to Come,'' his first production of a

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

. The songs and libretto are based on poems by contemporary Syrian poets, expressing the sufferings of the Syrian civil war. Sung in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

by Syrian soprano

and the Osnabrück opera choir, they are meant to express the melody of the Arabic language.

Selected discography

* ''Starlighter (2023)'' with string quartet Brooklyn Rider and percussionist Mathias Kunzli * ''Flow (2021)'' with the NDR Bigband * ''Uneven Sky'' (2019), with Yo-Yo Ma and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Opus Klassik Award in Germany *''Levant'' (2018), with

Eric Vloeimans Eric Vloeimans (; born 24 March 1963) is a Dutch musician, songwriter, and record producer. Biography Although he studied classical music as a child, he became interested in jazz at the Rotterdam Academy of Music. After graduating in 1988, he ...

and Jeroen van Vliet *''Orient & Occident'' (2012), with the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra *''Elastic City'' (2012), with the Kinan Azmeh Quartet *''Complex Stories, Simple Sounds'' (2009), with the Azmeh-Wijeratne Duo *Syrian Contemporary Chamber Music (2008), with the Damascus Festival Chamber Players *''Rigodon'' (2007), original sound track *''Musaique'' (2004), with Kulna Sawa (Syrian pop music band) *''Kulna Sawa'' (2001), with Kulna Sawa as member of Hewar (Syrian world music band) *''Hewar'' (2005) *''9 Days of Solitude: The Damascus Session'' (2006) with guest artist Manfred Leuchter (accordion) *''Letters to a homeland'' (2012)

References

External links

Kinan Azmeh's official webpageDaily Star ArticleKinan Azmeh: ''Prayer – A Tribute to Edward Said''Kinan Azmeh at Morgenland Festival OsnabrückKinan Azmeh at AllMusicKinan Azmeh on discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azmeh, Kinan 1976 births Living people Syrian musicians Syrian clarinetists Syrian composers Musicians from Damascus 21st-century clarinetists Syrian contemporary artists Al-Azma family

Life and career

Ensembles and performances

Selected discography

References

Further reading

External links