Internationally acclaimed Syrian clarinetist/composer Kinan Azmeh and Sri Lankan-born pianist/composer Dinuk Wijeratne share a stirring “Art of the Duo” performance/discussion program across northern New Hampshire, May 20-22.
The duo fuses elements of Arabic and Southeast Asian vocabulary with classical and jazz music idioms to create a new sonic world that the legendary Marcel Khalife called “wings of breath.”
In their informal northern New Hampshire programs, the musicians will play work from their album, “Complex Stories, Simple Sounds” and new compositions, and talk about collaboration and improvisation, their musical inspirations, life on the road around the world, and the role of the arts in times of crisis.
Programs take place
• 3 p.m., Sunday, May 20, All Saints Episcopal Church
35 School St., Littleton NH
• 7 p.m., Sunday, May 20, Starr King Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 101 Fairgrounds Road, Plymouth
• 6:30 p.m., Monday, May 21, Medallion Opera House, 20 Park St., Gorham NH
• 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 22, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 113 Main St., Lancaster. Dessert reception to follow.
Tickets for all programs cost $15 per person or $30 for families; tickets purchased in advance online at www.aannh.org are $12; reduced rates are available for Arts Alliance members. Absolutely everyone is welcome; anyone for whom the ticket price is too high is welcome to pay what they can or come at no cost.
“We are so excited to be offering our communities a chance to meet, listen and talk to these amazing musicians as part of a new partnership with the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts, which has worked with them for the past decade,” says Arts Alliance director Frumie Selchen.
Kinan and Dinuk’s three-day visit to northern New Hampshire also includes programs with students from Franklin to Woodsville as part of a residency funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies, including the NH State Council on the Arts. They will return this fall for two more days in the region.
For advance tickets and additional information, visit www.aannh.org, email [email protected] or call (603) 323-7302.
About Kinan Azmeh:
Hailed as a “virtuoso” who is “intensely soulful” by the New York Times and “spellbinding” by the New Yorker, Kinan Azmeh’s distinctive sound spans different musical genres and has gained him international recognition as a clarinetist and composer.
Kinan has been touring the world as soloist, composer and improviser. Notable appearances include: Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN’s 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 the Damascus Opera House for its opening concert in his native Syria. He serves as artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Players, a pan-Arab ensemble dedicated to contemporary music form the Arab world. He is also a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble with whom he was awarded a Grammy in 2017.
About Dinuk Wijeratne:
The Sri Lankan-born, Canada-based composer-performer Dinuk Wijeratne 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.
Dinuk’s 2016 highlights include JUNO and ECMA wins for his string quartet pieces Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems, and his appointment as Composer-in-Residence of Symphony Nova Scotia. His music and collaborative work embrace the great diversity of his international background and influences.