21C Cinq à Sept: Dinuk Wijeratne with Kinan Azmeh Saturday, May 26, 2018 at 5pm Temerty Theatre Dinuk Wijeratne, piano Kinan Azmeh, clarinet PROGRAM asked them on the 29th for the program order by Monday morning. Béla Bartók: After Béla (arr. Azmeh/Wijeratne) (Toronto premiere) Dinuk Wijeratne: Whose Windows are Songs and Silences Kinan Azmeh: November 22nd Dinuk Wijeratne: Dama-scene (world premiere) Kinan Azmeh: Syrian Dances (world premiere) INTERMISSION Kinan Azmeh: Ibn Arabi's Postlude Dinuk Wijeratne: Something There (Toronto premiere) Kinan Azmeh: Airports Dinuk Wijeratne: This Way Up↓ (Toronto premiere) Syrian Dances by Kinan Azmeh and Dama-scene by Dinuk Wijeratne commissioned by The Royal Conservatory/Koerner Hall Kinan Azmeh Clarinet & composer Hailed as a “virtuoso” and “intensely soulful” by The New York Times, “spellbinding” by The New Yorker, and “incredibly rich sound” by the CBC, Azmeh’s utterly distinctive sound across different musical genres has gained him international recognition as clarinetist and composer. He is currently serving as Composer-in-Residence with Classical Movements for the 2017-18 season. Azmeh 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 Colón, Buenos Aires; der Philharmonie, Berlin; the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Washington DC; the Mozarteum, Salzburg; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; and the Damascus opera house for its opening concert in his native Syria. He has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic, and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others. He has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Marcel Khalife, Aynur, Daniel Barenboim, John McLaughlin, and Djivan Gasparyan. His compositions include works for solo, orchestra, and chamber music; film, live illustration, and electronics. His discography includes albums with his ensemble Hewar, a duo album with Dinuk Wijeratne, and an album with his jazz quartet, the Kinan Azmeh CityBand. He serves as Artistic Director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Players, a pan-Arab ensemble dedicated to contemporary music form the Arab world. His is a frequent guest faculty at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music and is on the advisory board of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. He is also a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Azmeh is a graduate of New York’s Juilliard School, the Damascus High Institute of Music, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. He earned his doctorate degree in music from the City University of New York in 2013. www.kinanazmeh.com November 22nd November 22nd is a meditative work that depicts some sort of a sonic homesickness while abroad, where one finds himself/herself missing the familiar surrounding sounds of childhood. I wrote this piece while abroad, inspired by the memory of sounds of the market that used to exist behind my parents’ apartment back in Damascus, and how the slow and steady rhythm of life keeps moving regardless of one’s emotions. This is the middle movement of my “suite for improviser and orchestra.” Ibn Arabi's Postlude Ibn Arabi was an Arab Muslim mystic and philosopher, born in 1165 in Murcia, who died in 1240 in Damascus. The piece is inspired by a school of thought in which free thinking is as sacred as the religious beliefs. This movement can be described as an obsessive ritualistic dance, which was inspired by these two famous quotes of Ibn Arabi: “Hearing is the origin of existence ... that every existent vibrates” “every scene that does not project the multiple in one sight, cannot be relied upon ... every love that comes with a request, cannot be relied upon... every longing that is calmed by an encounter ... cannot be relied upon ...” Airports This is a protest song, written at JFK airport while waiting for my “secondary check.” Syrian Dances This new set of miniature dances are inspired by Bartók’s Romanian Dances, which have been an inspiration for me since childhood. For many years, I have toured with Bartók’s work and enjoyed listening to them being played on a variety of instruments and I even enjoyed improvising and “fooling around” with these little gems in different musical formations. I am hoping for these new little dances to inspire other instrumentalists and improvisers, and to have a long and varied life, as Bartók’s did. Dinuk Wijeratne Piano & composer Sri Lankan-born Dinuk Wijeratne is a Juno, SOCAN, ECMA, and Masterworks-winning composer, conductor, and pianist who has been described by The New York Times as “exuberantly creative” and by the Toronto Star as “an artist who reflects a positive vision of our cultural future.” 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. Wijeratne has also appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Opera Bastille, Teatro Colón, and across Sri Lanka, Japan, the UK, and the Middle East. He was featured as a main character in What Would Beethoven Do?, the documentary about innovation in classical music featuring Eric Whitacre, Bobby McFerrin, and Ben Zander. He grew up in Dubai and took up initial composition studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (UK), later studying with Oscar Award- winning composer John Corigliano at The Juilliard School. Wijeratne has composed for almost all of the artists and ensembles with whom he has performed, such as Suzie LeBlanc, Joseph Petric, David Jalbert, Bev Johnston, Zakir Hussain, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Sandeep Das, Tim Garland, Nick Halley, Ed Thigpen, Ramesh Misra, Ed Hanley, Eric Vloeimans, Buck 65, the Gryphon Trio, the Apollo Saxophone Quartet, TorQ Percussion, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the Afiara and Cecilia string quartets, and the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Nova Scotia, Buffalo, Illinois, Windsor, Victoria, Asheville, and Thunder Bay. His music and collaborative work embrace the great diversity of his international background and influences. After Béla (from Pe Loc, Romanian Dances, arr. Azmeh/Wijeratne) It was a shared love for the music of Béla Bartók that brought the Azmeh-Wijeratne duo together. In particular, it was our great respect not only for the fact that Bartók was the first ethnomusicologist but also an artist who responded with both humility and creativity to the musical material which lay outside the Western Classical realm. As a result, folk music dissolved permanently and beautifully into his own compositional language. Pe Loc, with its evocation of Indian ragas and Arabic maqams, seemed to be a perfect point of departure for exploring improvisation through art music and folk song. This Way Up↓ This Way Up↓, written during our student days in New York City, is inspired by the music of the Indo-fusion group Shakti. The theme, which forms the basis of the piece, emerges at the conclusion – a fast-paced melody influenced by the very angular and fractional rhythms of the South Indian “Carnatic” tradition. Something There Floating over the Middle Eastern baladi rhythm, the very simple melody of Something There seems to leave its question unanswered. The piece is a vehicle for improvisation and is an exploration of unusual piano sonorities, which evoke the sounds of the harp, sitar, darbuka, and tabla. Whose Windows are Songs and Silences The title of this piece is taken from the last line of Kahlil Gibran's poem, “On Houses,” from his most famous work, The Prophet. The music is inspired by the sentiment of the poem which suggests that one’s home should be thought of not as an “anchor” but as a “mast.” And so, while home is a secure place, by virtue of curiosity and open- mindedness, it becomes the point of departure for adventure. Dinuk Wijeratne composed a piece for DJ Skratch Bastid and the Afiara Quartet for 21C in 2015 and Kinan Azmeh makes his Royal Conservatory debut this afternoon. .