The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2025 Spring Music Production Grant to Kinan Azmeh for the recording "Concertino Grosso."

An original composition for string orchestra, percussion, and improvising soloists was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the Knights Orchestra. The work has been toured in the US and will now be recorded at the Power Station in Manhattan for an early 2026 release.

Hailed by critics and audiences alike, clarinetist and composer  Kinan Azmeh has gained international recognition for his distinctive voice across diverse musical genres. His album Uneven Sky with the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra won the OPUS KLASSIK Award in 2019.

Originally from Damascus, Syria, Kinan brings his music to all corners of the world as a soloist, composer, collaborator, and improviser. Notable appearances include the Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN General Assembly, New York; Royal Albert Hall, London; Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin; Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, Washington DC; the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie; and in his native Syria at the opening concert of the Damascus Opera House. 

Kinan has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Dusseldorf Symphony, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Azerbaijan State Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Toronto Symphony, A Far Cry, The Knights, Calgary Philharmonic, Qatar Philharmonic, and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others and has shared the stage with such musical luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, Marcel Khalife, John McLaughlin, Francois Rabbath, Aynur and Jivan Gasparian. 

Kinan is renowned for his diverse portfolio of compositions spanning solo, chamber, and orchestral music, as well as film scores, live illustration, and electronic music. His recent works have garnered acclaim, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, The Knights, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Elbphilharmonie, Apple Hill String Quartet, Quatuor Voce, Brooklyn Rider, Cello Octet Amsterdam, the Aizuri Quartet, and Bob Wilson. 

His first opera Songs for Days to Come which is fully sung in Arabic, was premiered in Osnabruck, Germany in June 2022 to a great acclaim.

A champion of contemporary music, he has been honored with dedications of several clarinet concertos by composer colleagues including Kareem Roustom, Dia Succari, Dinuk Wijeratne, Zaid Jabri, Saad Haddad, Kyle Sanna, and Guss Janssen. Additionally, he has been the inspiration behind a multitude of chamber music compositions.  

Kinan Azmeh was appointed by President Biden to the United States National Council for the Arts. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School as a student of Charles Neidich, and of both the Damascus High Institute of Music where he studied with Shukry Sahwki, Nicolay Viovanof, and Anatoly Moratof, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. Kinan earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from the City University of New York in 2013. 

Please visit Kinan’s Website, Instagram and Facebook for more information.