Azmeh’s expressive clarinet meets Kyle Sanna’s rustic guitar in this outdoor and online concert, part of WCCMA’s summer concert series. These two celebrated award-winning composers, improvisers and, most importantly, dear friends have been playing together for the past 18 years. They have toured the world together with the Kinan Azmeh CityBand, among many other projects.  In this performance,  they return to Claremont with new original compositions inspired by a multitude of traditions for this intimate setting.

Presented outside at Union Episcopal Church, bring your own chair or blanket. This project was funded in part by a grant from the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

Advanced registration is suggested, but registration at the event is also available. In the event of inclement weather the alternate performance plan will be emailed to registered ticket holders and posted on www.wcc-ma.org/weather

Digital concert access will be provided from the WCCMA YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCRCT3ishjXGiOnQJDDGP3g

KINAN AZMEH

Hailed as “intensely soulful” and a “virtuoso” by The New York Times and “spellbinding” by The New Yorker, Winner of OpusKlassik award in 2019 clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh has gained international recognition for what the CBC has called his “incredibly rich sound” and his distinctive compositional voice across diverse musical genres.

Originally from Damascus, Syria, Kinan Azmeh brings his music to all corners of the world as a soloist, composer and improviser. Notable appearances include the Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN General Assembly, New York; the Royal Albert hall, London; Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; Der Philharmonie, Berlin; the Library of Congress, the 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, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others, and has shared the stage with such musical luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Marcel Khalife, Aynur, Daniel Barenboim, and Jivan Gasparian.

KYLE SANNA

Hailed as a “first rate, versatile musician” by The New Yorker, guitarist and composer Kyle Sanna is on the move: performing traditional Irish music as well as jazz and improvised music, composing for ensembles, and producing recordings for other artists.

He has collaborated with and performed alongside modern virtuosos like Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile, and with some of the greatest living interpreters of the Irish tradition including Martin Hayes and Seamus Egan.

Sanna’s music has been described as “unconventionally beautiful” by WNYC’s New Sounds and Sound Check host John Schaefer and has been performed at venues across the globe: at the Bach House in Eisenach, Germany, Oman’s Royal Opera House, Sydney’s ABC studios, Taipei’s National Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, and many points between.