Syrian clarinetist, composer coming to Providence

Kinan Azmeh has many stories.

Stories of his clarinet playing. Stories of his composing. Of his musical collaborations — like with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.

Some of his stories are harrowing. About life in his native Syria, and how he left Damascus in 1992 to study in the United States. About the 2017 travel ban, which stranded him for a brief, terrifying time, without any place to go. About the seemingly unsolvable problems in his home country, which has been a war zone for too much of his life.

Azmeh is coming to Providence to share many of these stories. In a weeklong residency beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 26, with Community MusicWorks, Azmeh will join discussion groups, give concerts and work with students. The residency will culminate in Azmeh's sold-out concert at Brown University on March 2. On March 7-8, he will perform his Clarinet Concerto, which had its world premiere earlier this month, with the Brown University Orchestra.

Both the residency and the concerts will bring some insight into the world of this fascinating Syrian musician, who was recruited because of his clarinet virtuosity to come to the United States when he was 16. He stayed to finish his doctorate, and then become a tremendously successful musician. But the path hasn't always been easy.

Some 12 million people have been forced from their homes in Syria — more than half the population. Most are still in Syria, caught in the war zone, but many of them made it to Turkey, and some to Jordan or Lebanon. Some have come to the Providence area.

Azmeh has been more fortunate than most Syrians. He lives in New York City, and has his green card, which allows him to live and work permanently in the United States. He composes prolifically, and performs in some of the world's finest venues. He's part of the brilliant Silk Road network, and won a Grammy with that group in 2016. He's had performances of his own compositions with orchestras all around the world. He performs in multiple ensembles, and leads his own Kinan Azmeh CityBand.

Some problems Azmeh has faced have come from this country, not his native country.

In January 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that barred the citizens of seven Muslim countries, including Syria, from entering the United States for 90 days, and indefinitely halted the admission of refugees from Syria. At the time, Azmeh was performing in Europe.

"I had been in America for 16 years by then," he said. "I have a green card." But for a few terrifying days — until parts of the ban were temporarily halted by the courts — he was in limbo.

Azmeh has been traveling freely since then — and he does travel frequently, including  appearances in Europe, recording sessions on the East Coast and a recent appearance with the Seattle Symphony. The concerns stemming from the ban are largely behind him — or so he says, keeping an optimistic outlook.

"You put it in relation to what other people are going through," he says of his attitude. "The ban did effect me, briefly, two years ago. In some ways people took it out of proportion. I was blocked for a while, yes, but you keep these things in perspective."

The Seattle premiere of the Clarinet Concerto earlier this month was a landmark for Azmeh.

"They invited me there right after the travel ban," he says of the orchestra. "They had a concert in 2017, Music Without Borders, which I was part of. And they asked for this concerto commission, too. From the get-go, I felt like part of that community. This concert had great emotional value."

The Seattle Symphony has exclusive rights to the concerto, but waived them so Azmeh could perform with the Brown orchestra.

Azmeh's music often calls for improvising, a skill not normally associated with classical musicians. The Clarinet Concerto is different from his usual style, composed throughout and in one continuous movement that has members of the orchestra "singing" a few notes in the closing lullaby section.

"I wrote the piece so I could share it with players who are not used to improvising," he says. "Something I would have fun playing, and that the orchestra would have fun playing."

The Community MusicWorks residency involves multiple free performances and discussions, including a panel on "Music in Times of Conflict," on Thursday, Feb. 28, at Brown's Grant Recital Hall. The event is a joint presentation of CMW, Brown University's Middle Eastern studies department and the Providence Public Library, and features Azmeh and fellow composer Kareem Roustom, along with representatives of Providence's Dorcas International Institute, which has helped Syrians settle in the area.

"It's not limited to Syria," Azmeh says. "I hope we talk about Syria in connection with the arts, and art in the time of conflict. For me this is the most meaningful part, talking to people who don't usually have access to the music."

Azmeh's journey so far has taken him from war zones to creative success to political challenges. His music — composing and performing — remains a constant.

"As an artist, you keep going," he says. "Culture might be the only survivor of violent times."

— Keith Powers covers music and the arts for the GateHouse papers and WBUR's The ARTery. On Twitter: @PowersKeith.

Events

Panel discussion, "Music in Times of Conflict," on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 5 p.m. at Brown University's Grant Recital Hall, 105 Benevolent St., Providence. Sponsored by Brown University's Middle Eastern studies department, the Providence Public Library and Community MusicWorks. Free. Register at voices-from-syria-panel-discussion.eventbrite.com. 

Celebration of Middle Eastern Culture, Kinan Azmeh and guests, on Friday, March 1, at City Arts, 891 Broad St., Providence. Community dinner at 6 p.m. followed by the concert at 7. Sponsored by Community MusicWorks and Dorcas International Institute. Free, no registration required.

Brown University Orchestra, Mark Seto conducting, will perform Kinan Azmeh's Clarinet Concerto on Thursday, March 7, and Friday, March 8, at 8 p.m. at Sayles Hall on the College Green. The orchestra will also perform Verdi's overture to "La forza del destino" on Thursday and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 both nights. Tickets are $12, 65-plus $7, $3 students with ID. The March 8 concert is dedicated to the memory of Anthony Brattoli, a musician in the orchestra and member of the Class of 2019 who died last summer following an aneurysm. More information: brown.edu/academics/music or (401) 863-3234.