Kinan Azmeh & CityBand – Musica Viva!

Kinan Azmeh, the 2019 Opus Klassik award-winning clarinetist and composer, has earned global acclaim for his unique musical voice. Originally from Damascus, Syria, Azmeh’s soulful and virtuosic style has been celebrated by critics, with The New York Times calling him “intensely soulful” and the Los-Angeles Times praising his “rhapsodic clarinet.”

As a soloist, composer, and improviser, Azmeh has performed on the world’s most prestigious stages, including the Opera Bastille in Paris, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Carnegie Hall, the UN General Assembly, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and the Berlin Philharmonie. He has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and has shared the stage with musical luminaries like Yo-Yo Ma and Daniel Barenboim.

Azmeh’s compositions span solo, chamber, and orchestral works, as well as music for film and electronics. He has received commissions from major institutions including the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and The Knights Orchestra. He is also a dedicated advocate for new music, with several concertos dedicated to him.

In addition to his solo career, Azmeh leads his Arab-Jazz Quartet CityBand and Hewar trio. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, contributing as both a clarinetist and composer to their 2017 Grammy-winning album, Sing Me Home.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, the Damascus High Institute of Music, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering, Azmeh holds a doctorate in music from the City University of New York. His first opera, Songs for Days to Come, sung entirely in Arabic, premiered in Germany in June 2022 to wide acclaim. Recently, President Joe Biden appointed him to the National Council for the Arts.

As a composer, drummer and percussionist, John Hadfield’s dedication to music has taken him from his native Missouri to concert halls and clubs across the world. Currently living in Paris, France, He has released four albums and numerous singles and EP’s of his own compositions and has composed for many collaborative projects, including Heard By Others, a duo project with Lenny Pickett, Speaking in Tongues, a duo project with Rachel Eckroth, Believers a trio with Brad Shepik and Sam Minaie, and For James a duo with Ron Blake. Hadfield also composed and performed in Apologue 2047, a multimedia performance art piece directed by Zhang Yimou which explored themes of the relationships of humans and technology. In addition, Hadfield’s music was used in the feature-length documentary After Spring, and he can be heard playing percussion on numerous movie soundtracks including The Goldfinch, Gemini Man and Drive Away Dolls.

John’s diverse ablites have allowed him to perform with the Saturday Night Live Band on NBC, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, Abel Selaocoe and the Seattle Symphony, and the Silk Road Ensemble. He has collaborated on more than 100 recordings, including GRAMMY award winning and nominated albums.

John’s work has received significant critical acclaim. Time Out New York has noted, “John Hadfield’s percussion is so impeccable” and Modern Drummer featured him in an article stating, “Hadfield delivers a fluid groove, strong yet never intrusive, punctuated by adroitly chosen accents. His skillful sound-weaving choices create the illusion of a seamless multi-percussion section.”

Josh Myers is proud to offer his open ears and big earthy bass tone to various incredible projects including Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, Big Words, Heather Christian & The Arbornauts and Kinan Azmeh’s CityBand. He has had the pleasure of performing in legendary venues such as the Fillmore, Lincoln Center, The Royal Opera House in Muscat Oman, Carnegie Hall, and The Library of Congress, and performed alongside such greats as John Scofield, Kenny Werner, Ralph Alessi and Bernard Purdie.

From July 2017 Live For Live Music interview: “I started playing music when I was about 6. I grew up outside of Boston and got into classical piano for a number of years. I never really got good at that. Right around the beginning of high school, I switched piano teachers. My new teacher was a jazz pianist. Instead of just teaching the mechanics of the piano, he was teaching the mechanics of music. That’s where I started to get really into music.

Around 16 or so, I really got into the guitar and it came very naturally to me. Then, I switched to bass about a year later, just as a hobby. This is the same story that every bass player has. There were way too many guitarists in my group of friends. I picked it up for the first time at a friend’s house, who happened to have one, and we played Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” for like six hours with one groove. When I got really into the electric bass, I went through all of my favorite music just playing along to it. It gave me a chance to learn different styles by different people.

By the time I got to college age, I was thinking I was going to be a jazz musician. I still play a little bit of jazz, but it’s been taken over more by the stuff I loved in high school, which was The Meters, Soundgarden, Tool. It swings back and forth, whether it’s the ’70’s funk, soul, and groove stuff that really moves me or that really heavy grunge that I just loved and would listen to in high school in my room on loop.”

Kyle Sanna has been active as a composer, producer, guitarist, and improviser in New York City since 2000. He has collaborated with and performed alongside many of today’s virtuosos (Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile), with some of the greatest living interpreters of Irish music (Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes, Seamus Egan), and with improvisers worldwide. As a composer, Kyle writes for both live performance and fixed media. His “ruminative and shape-shifting” (San Francisco Chronicle) work for string quartet, Sequence for Minor White, won First Prize in the 2018 Charlotte New Music Festival Composition Competition. WNYC’s New Sounds and Sound Check host John Schaefer called his music “unconventionally beautiful.” Kyle has arranged music for orchestra and soloist (for banjo pioneer Bela Fleck and for cellist Jan Vogler with the Knights), for string quartet (for mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter and for Irish fiddler Martin Hayes with Brooklyn Rider), and as well as for Silkroad. His arrangements have appeared on The Colbert Report, NPR’s Performance Today, and on the Sony Classical, Sony Masterworks, and Naïve labels. In addition to his composing and arranging, Kyle Sanna is an active improviser on guitar, synths, and samplers, performing solo and collaborating with instrumentalists, dancers, and theater companies. Kyle lives in Brooklyn and is a member of Kinan Azmeh’s CityBand, Peter Apfelbaum’s Sparkler, The Seamus Egan Project, Ground Patrol, and a duo with violinist Dana Lyn.

Is this concert free?
No, this concert is only open to paying members. To learn more about MBAW’s membership and join, click here.

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Can I see this artist elsewhere?
Yes. This artist is available for another membership series and a free public concert. Please return to the event calendar to see these other events.

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