Kinan Azmeh

Hailed by critics and audiences alike, clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh has gained international recognition for his distinctive voice across diverse musical genres.

Originally from Damascus, Syria, Kinan brings his music to all corners of the world as a soloist, composer, collaborator, and improviser. Notable appearances include the Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN General Assembly, New York; Royal Albert Hall, London; Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin; Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, Washington DC; the Mozarteum, Salzburg; Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie; and in his native Syria at the opening concert of the Damascus Opera House.

He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Dusseldorf Symphony, Montreal Symphony, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Azerbaijan State Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Toronto Symphony, A Far Cry, The Knights, Calgary Philharmonic, Qatar Philharmonic, the NDR BigBand and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others and has shared the stage with such musical luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, Marcel Khalife, John McLaughlin, Francois Rabbath, Aynur and Jivan Gasparian.

Kinan is renowned for his diverse portfolio of compositions spanning solo, chamber, and orchestral music, as well as film scores, live illustration, and electronic music. His recent works have garnered acclaim, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, The Knights, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Elbphilharmonie, Apple Hill String Quartet, Quatuor Voce, Brooklyn Rider, Cello Octet Amsterdam, the Aizuri Quartet, and Bob Wilson.

His first opera Songs for Days to Come, fully sung in Arabic, premiered in Osnabrück, Germany in 2022 to great acclaim.

A champion of contemporary music, he has been honored with dedications of several clarinet concertos by composer colleagues including Kareem Roustom, Dia Succari, Dinuk Wijeratne, Zaid Jabri, Saad Haddad, Kyle Sanna, and Guss Janssen. Additionally, he has inspired a multitude of chamber music compositions.

In addition to his own Arab-Jazz quartet, Kinan Azmeh and CityBand, and his Hewar trio, Kinan has performed with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2012. Their Grammy Award-winning 2017 album Sing Me Home features Kinan as both clarinetist and composer.

Kinan's work and life have been the subjects of several documentary films including Music of Strangers by Academy Award-winning American director Morgan Neville, and the recent documentary Half Moon by Dutch filmmaker Frank Scheffer.

Kinan Azmeh was appointed by President Biden to the United States National Council for the Arts. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Charles Neidich, as well as the Damascus High Institute of Music, where he studied with Shukry Sahwki, Nicolay Viovanof, and Anatoly Moratof, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. Kinan earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York in 2013.