c Anton Tal

New Babylonia

10|03|2023

Berlin Babylon Orchestra
10.3.2023 – Kubus Kühlhaus – 20:00 Uhr
Einlass – 19:30 Uhr
Regularticket : 21,42 €
Earlybird: 12,34 €
Studierende: 12,34 €
NEW BABYLONIA – feat. Kinan Azmeh, Naghib Shanbehzadeh and Sanaz Sotoudeh
Mit dem bekannten syrischen Klarinettisten Kinan Azmeh, der iranischen Pianistin Sanaz Sotoudeh erkundet das Quintett des Babylon ORCHESTRA die Musik aus den Ländern des babylonischen Reiches – heute umfasst dieses Gebiet neben Ländern wie Iran und Irak auch Syrien und bis hin zu Libanon oder Armenien. Eigene Kompositionen, die traditionelle Elemente dieser Kulturen in frischer moderner Form aufgreifen und Improvisationen zwischen den Musikern aus dem Iran, Europa und Asien geben einen Eindruck von der aktuellen kulturellen Vielfalt Vorderasiens.
Kinan Azmeh – Klarinette – www.kinanazmeh.com
Sanaz Sotoudeh – Klavier – https://www.sanazsotoudeh.com/
Naghib Shanbehzadeh – Perkussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaABcXVpnlM
Mischa Tangian – Violine
Kundri Lu Emma Schäfer Viola
Martin Knörzer – Violoncello
Valentin Link – Kontrabass/Moog Synth
ENG:
NEW BABYLONIA – feat. Kinan Azmeh, Naghib Shanbehzadeh and Sanaz Sotoudeh
With the well-known Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, the Iranian pianist Sanaz Sotoudeh, the quintet of the Babylon ORCHESTRA will explore the music from the countries of the Babylonian Empire – today this area includes not only countries such as Iran and Iraq, but also Syria and as far as Lebanon or Armenia. Original compositions that take up traditional elements of these cultures in fresh modern form and improvisations between the musicians from Iran, Europe and Asia will give an impression of the current cultural diversity of the Near East through this special encounter.
Kinan Azmeh – clarinet – www.kinanazmeh.com
Sanaz Sotoudeh – piano https://www.sanazsotoudeh.com/
Naghib Shanbehzadeh – percussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaABcXVpnlM
Mischa Tangian – violin
Kundri Lu Emma Schäfer – viola
Martin Knörzer – cello
Valentin Link – double bass/Moog Synth
c Diamondsedgephotography

Sanaz Sotoudeh

“Sanaz Sotoudeh at the piano making light of the fiendishly difficult piano parts. Her playing throughout was sensitive to the extraordinary range of emotions of these works, combining confidence and astute pianism” Musical Pointers (London, UK, 2011)

Pianist Sanaz Sotoudeh has appeared in recitals at various venues and festivals around Europe, North America and Middle-East. As a versatile pianist in both solo and collaborative repertoire she has been performing and collaborating with well-known musicians, artists and orchestras around the world; as well as live performances and interview on BBC Radio 3 in UK, on Okarina Musique TV in France, Boiler Room TV in UK, and on Abu Dhabi TV in UAE.

Sanaz Sotoudeh has performed and worked with Daniel Barenboim’s ‘West- eastern Divan Orchestra’; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra; Montreal Symphony Orchestra; Banff Center for Art and Creativity; Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal; Red-bull Music Festival; Abu Dhabi International Music Festival; and Edinburgh Music Festival.

Sanaz Sotoudeh is currently teaching at the Canadian University Dubai.

c Kinan Azmeh

Kinan Azmeh

Hailed as “intensely soulful” and a “virtuoso” by The New York Times, Winner of OpusKlassik award in 2019 clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh has gained international recognition for what the New Yorker has called “Spellbinding!” for his distinctive voice across diverse musical genres.

Originally from Damascus, Syria, Kinan Azmeh brings his music to all corners of the world as a soloist, composer and improviser. Notable appearances include the Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN 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 in his native Syria at the opening concert of the Damascus Opera House.

He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Dusseldorf Symphony, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the 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’s compositions include several works for solo, chamber, and orchestral music, as well as music for film, live illustration, and electronics. His resent works were commissioned by The New York Philharmonic, The Seattle Symphony , The Knights Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orhcetsra, Elbphilharmonie, Apple Hill string quartet, Quatuor Voce, Brooklyn Rider, Cello Octet Amsterdam, Aizuri Quartet and Bob Wilson.

An advocate for new music, several concertos were dedicated to him by composers such as Kareem Roustom, Dia Succari, Dinuk Wijeratne, Zaid Jabri, Saad Haddad and Guss Janssen, in addition to a large number of chamber music works. 

In addition to his own Arab-Jazz Quartet CityBnad and his Hewar trio, he has also been playing with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2012, whose 2017 Grammy Award-winning album “Sing Me Home” features Kinan as a clarinetist and composer.

Kinan Azmeh is a graduate of New York’s 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 his doctorate degree in music from the City University of New York in 2013.

His first opera “Songs for Days to Come” which is fully sung in Arabic, was recently premiered in Osnabruck, Germany in June 2022 to a great acclaim and He has recently been appointed to the National Council for the Arts on a nomination by President Joe Biden.

www.kinanazmeh.com