Led by clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh, the Damascus Festival Chamber Players first came together during Damascus’s tenure as Cultural Capital of the Arab World in 2008. The five musicians, who hail from Syria, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Egypt, were looking to create an ensemble in which Arab musicians from different countries, both residents and expatriates, could collaborate, performing chamber music by contemporary Arab composers as well as Western classical music. Their program at the Pierre Boulez Saal will include works by Syrian composers of two generations: Dia Succari (1938–2010), Nouri Iskandar (b. 1938), Zaid Jabri (b. 1975), Kareem Roustom (b. 1971), and Chafi Badreddin (b. 1972).

The concert is supported by the Abu Dhabi Festival.