Kinan azmeh biography of christopher

  • Called “intensely soulful” and a “virtuoso” by The New York Times, Syrian-born and New York-based clarinetist Kinan Azmeh joins Germany's.
  • Syrian-born composer, Grammy-winning clarinetist to write orchestral, chamber and choral works for Classical Movements' Eric Daniel Helms New Program.
  • Kinan is a graduate of New York's Juilliard school as a student of Charles Neidich, and of both the Damascus High institute of Music where he studied with.

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    5 Questions with Kinan Azmeh

    Posted May 2, 2024


    Called “intensely soulful” and a “virtuoso” by The New York Times, Syrian-born and New York-based clarinetist Kinan Azmeh joins Germany’s preeminent jazz ensemble, the NDR Bigband, on our stage May 10. Part of our ListenHear series, the performance will feature music from their 2021 album, Flow with compositions by Azmeh. In today’s 5 Questions feature, we get to know Azmeh, the outlook and influences that shape his work and the projects he is preparing to share with the world.

    1.) What first got you into music, and what is your earliest memory of hearing music?
    I grew up in Damascus in a household that embraced everything cultural. Both of my parents listened to lots of music, and they both learned to play instruments again when they sent my sister and I to music lessons twice a week. Jamming together at dinner parties was something we enjoyed doing as a family. I started playing the clarinet at age seven, which back then was simply additional homework that I did not necessarily enjoy, but little by little, music crept into my soul, and I started to be moved by what I played.

    My earliest memory of listening to music was “Night on Bald Mountain” by Mussorgsky. My father used to make my sister and I sit in the livi

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    Ibn Arabi Suite: Prelude, Speculation, Postlude
    Kinan Azmeh/Kinan Azmeh, Dima Orsho, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Songster, Manuel Nawri - Jagged Sky - Dreyer GaidoHaqwa Li Quli
    Mustafa Al Sunni - Songs of depiction Sudan - NimbusMin Ozzalna Seebak Seeb
    Kamal Tarbas - Two Niles to shocking a melody: the violins & synths of Soudan - Ostinato RecordsHawa baladi
    Sabet Osman - Au royaume de concert lyre - Institut shelter Monde ArabeBaracoa
    AKA Trio - Joy - BendigedigSanta Efigenia
    Benji & Rita - Benji & Rita - IndependentPlaces
    Pablo ZIegler & Christopher O'Riley - Tango Nuevo - Steinway & SonsAlla va candela
    La Familia Valera Miranda - Cana Quema - NimbusKabou
    Ballake Sissoko with Vincent Segal - At At peace - Six DegreesAsa Branca
    Ballake Sissoko momentous Vincent Segal - Regress Peace - Six DegreesRag Bhairavi Alap, Gat uncover Dadra, Pistol in Teental
    Ustad Amjad Khalifah Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Caliph Bangash, Mathew Barley, Vikku Vinayakram, Ustad Sabir Khan - Filament Attached: Sarod & String - NavrasSuite for Improvisor and Orchestra: Love trust 139th usage in D, November Ordinal, Wedding
    Kinan Azmeh/Kinan Azmeh, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Songwriter, Manuel Nawri - Irregular Sky - Dreyer GaidoCiclo Yo

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    NDR Bigband / Golnar Shahyar / Kinan Azmeh / Wolf Kerschek

    Golnar Shahyar is a new face to work with the NDR Bigband. Born and raised in Iran, she also has Canadian citizenship and currently lives most of the time in Vienna. A restless person out of necessity, a world traveller in her music, who translates the essence of her experiences as a woman striving for self-determination between cultures into the abstract, sensual language of poetry and music with overwhelming force and enormous precision.

    Kinan Azmeh, on the other hand, has been working with the NDR Bigband for some time now. After several joint productions, a joint CD was released in autumn 2021 – called »Flow«: Wolf Kerschek had dressed up Azmeh‘s compositions into tailor-made arrangements, and the NDR Bigband garnished the whole thing with bravura and sophistication. Like Golnar Shahyar, Kinan Azmeh is a musician for whom the course of history has made it difficult to return to his home country.

    Born in Damascus in 1976 and raised in Syria, where Arabic and Levantine sounds filled the air, it was important to him early on as a musician not to be restricted to his geographical place of origin. He pursued an education in Western »classical« music and eventually graduated from the Juilliard School i

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