The Sounds Around Us with Kinan Azmeh

Renowned clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh joins OSL to perform his own works, along with music that has shaped his musical identity. Musical storyteller Aya Aziz hosts and Tito Muñoz conducts, inviting K–12 students from across New York City to join in making music together while hearing about traditions including American jazz, Western classical music, and Syrian classical music. Azmeh shares his journey from Damascus, Syria to his adopted home in New York City, his creative process, and the joys of musical spontaneity, performing his Suite for Improvisor and Orchestra. His first residence, in Harlem, was an influence for the work’s first movement, Love on 139th Street. OSL connects Kinan’s music to the uptown sounds of Ellington’s Harlem Air Shaft, which captures the sensory overload of a Harlem apartment building. Ellington wrote: “An air shaft is one great big loudspeaker. You see your neighbor’s laundry. You hear the janitor’s dogs … You smell coffee … An air shaft has got every contrast.” What New York audience can’t relate to that? Each year OSL’s Free School Concerts introduce classical music to more than 5,000 children, providing many with their first trip to the orchestra. 

Event Duration

The program will last approximately 60 minutes with no intermission.