Kinan Azmeh: Uneven Sky (2019)

performed by Bodek Janke (percussion), Dávid Adorján (cello), Dima Orsho (gesang), Hogir Göregen (percussion), Kinan Azmeh (clarinet), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Manuel Nawri (conductor)
composed by Dia Succari, Kareem Roustom, Kinan Azmeh, Zaid Jabri

Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh has crossed several identity boundaries in his career, it is not only that he is a Western-trained musician with a background in Syrian traditional music. He left Syria in 2000 to study at the Juilliard School in New York, and has found it difficult to return due to the country's deadly civil war. In New York, he has been active as a jazz player as well as in concert music. Moreover, he is both a performer and a composer. Most of these aspects of his background appear in one form or another on this ... Read More

Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh has crossed several identity boundaries in his career, it is not only that he is a Western-trained musician with a background in Syrian traditional music. He left Syria in 2000 to study at the Juilliard School in New York, and has found it difficult to return due to the country's deadly civil war. In New York, he has been active as a jazz player as well as in concert music. Moreover, he is both a performer and a composer. Most of these aspects of his background appear in one form or another on this satisfying double album release, where he performs with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Manuel Nawri. The first disc is devoted to Azmeh's own compositions, which go well beyond simply providing a vehicle for his own virtuosity. The three works all address different parts of his cultural makeup, but consider and sample the final work, The Fence, the Rooftop and the Distant Sea, where he gets a major assist from cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Azmeh has been a member of Ma's Silk Road... Read Less