Internationally Acclaimed Duo Celebrate 10 Years in Claremont
Kinan Azmeh, clarinet and Dinuk Wijeratne, piano celebrate 10 years at WCCMA with new works by the acclaimed duo. The Duo creates a new sonic world through their unique fusion of Arabic and south-Asian vocabulary with classical and jazz idioms. Audiences are moved by their expressive performances and the stories that inspired them. Despite their high demand as world-class composers and performers with engagements across the world Azmeh and Wijeratne consider Claremont to be one of their homes, and make time to return at least once per year for performances, education programs, and collaboration.
This performance is a part of WCCMA’s Summer Concert Series at Union Church, a music series committed to barriers free access to great music. Admission is by donation. For this concert we suggest a donation of $25 or $40 for families, or “pay what you can.” For more information visit wcc-ma.org.
Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh is hailed as a “Virtuoso” and “Intensely Soulful” by the New York Times, “Spellbinding” by the New Yorker, and “Incredibly Rich Sound” by the CBC. Kinan has been touring the world as soloist, composer and improviser. His utterly distinctive sound across different musical genres has gained him international recognition as clarinetist and composer. Kinan was recently named composer-in-residence with Classical Movements for the 2017-2018 season, and he is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble with whom he was awarded a Grammy in 2017.
Sri Lankan-born Canadian Dinuk Wijeratne is a JUNO award-winning composer, conductor, and pianist who has been described by the Toronto Star as ‘an artist who reflects a positive vision of our cultural future’, and by the New York Times as ‘exuberantly creative’. His boundary-crossing work sees him equally at home in collaborations with symphony orchestras and string quartets, tabla players and DJs, and takes him to international venues as poles apart as the Berlin Philharmonie and the North Sea Jazz Festival.
