Clarinet
Guitar
Bass
Drums
Syrian composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh brings his New York–based Kinan Azmeh CityBand back to the Pierre Boulez Saal. Crossing boundaries between styles and genres, between composition and improvisa tion, the quartet plays “music that is inspired by a multitude of traditions without being limited by any of them,” as Azmeh describes it. The concert is part of a German tour celebrating the release of the band’s new album Live in Berlin, recorded at the Pierre Boulez Saal in 2021.
Born in Damascus, Kinan Azmeh graduated from New York’s Juilliard School and the Institute of Music of his hometown, and also holds a degree from Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering and a doctorate in music from the City University of New York. As a clarinetist, composer, and improviser he has appeared at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Salzburg Mozarteum, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., collaborating with the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NDR Bigband, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as well as artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma, and John McLaughlin, among many others. He has written compositions for solo instruments, chamber music, orchestral works, and film scores, including a clarinet concerto, which he premiered with the Seattle Symphony in 2019, and, most recently, the opera Songs for Days to Come, first staged in 2022 at the Osnabrück Theater. His album Uneven Sky was awarded an Opus Klassik Award in 2019. In addition to leading his own ensembles, the Kinan Azmeh CityBand and the trio Hewar, he regularly performs as a duo with pianist Dinuk Wijeratne and with ther Silkroad Ensemble. He has been closely associated with the Pierre Boulez Saal since its opening in 2017.
Brooklyn-based guitarist and composer Kyle Sanna performs traditional Irish music as well as jazz and improvised music, writes for ensembles such as Brooklyn Rider, The Knights, and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, and produces recordings for other artists. His compositions have been heard at venues such as Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Royal Opera House Oman, Bach’s birthplace in Eisenach, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Sydney’s ABC Studios, and many others in between. His Sequence for Minor White for string quartet won First Prize at the 2018 Charlotte New Music Festival Composition Competition. As an arranger, he has collaborated with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, cellist Jan Vogler, and mezzo-soprano Anne-Sofie von Otter, as well as cellist Yo-Yo Ma on two Grammy Award-winning albums. He regularly performs with Irish music legends Martin Hayes and Seamus Egan, as well as with Peter Apfelbaum, Dana Lyn, Kinan Azmeh, and his group Ground Patrol.
Bassist Josh Myers performs with a number of bands, including Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, Big Words, and Heather Christian & The Arbonauts, in addition to CityBand. He has appeared at San Francisco’s Fillmore Jazz Festival, at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman, among many others. His musical partners have included artists such as John Scofield, Kenny Werner, Ralph Alessi, and Bernard Purdie.
Percussionist, drummer, and composer John Hadfield has appeared at concert halls and clubs around the world with such diverse artists and groups as Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, Nguyên Lê’s Streams Quartet, the Saturday Night Live Band, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, as well as CityBand. Some of his most recent compositions are featured in his duo project with Lenny Pickett, Heard by Others, and the group Believers with Brad Shepik and Sam Minaie. In 2019, he composed and performed in Apologue 2047, a multimedia performance art piece directed by Zhang Yimou that explores the relationships between humans and technology. In addition to four albums of his own music, he has collaborated on more than 100 recordings as a guest artist, including the Grammy Award winner Songs of Joy and Peace by Yo-Yo Ma and Friends and the Grammy-nominated cast recording of Jeanine Tesori’s musical Fun Home. Most recently, he could be heard on the soundtracks to the movies Gemini Man and Joker, which won the 2020 Academy Award for best original score.
