Kinan Azmeh. Photo: © Justin Mohling
Traversing the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, Silkroad presents a brand new trio seamlessly blending three disparate narratives of language and sound. Three internationally acclaimed, genre-bending artists who each have been credited with reshaping the landscape of their respective instruments through their unique improvisational styles and compositional voices.
Hailing from Damascus, Syria, Kinan Azmeh has been taking the international music scene by storm with his unique blending of Eastern and Western styles, bombastic improvisation and large-scale compositions for orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and the Seattle Symphony.
Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe‘s work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements, working with such figures as Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran and André 3000.
Scottish harper and composer Maeve Gilchrist has been credited with bringing the Celtic harp to new levels of visibility through her unique improvisational and textural approach to the instrument and her collaborations with artists such as from Arooj Aftab, Yo-Yo Ma, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Esperanza Spalding.
Through this unique collaboration, hear three very different voices in conversation with one another as they find the sweet spots of stylistic intersection, dramatic contrast and virtuosity, forging an entirely new aesthetic that feels as organic as can be.
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Kinan Azmeh
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, Kinan 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. In addition to his own Arab-Jazz quartet, Kinan Azmeh and CityBand, and his Hewar trio, Kinan has also been performing with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2012, whose 2017 Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home features Kinan as a clarinetist and composer.
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.
Photo: Liudmila Jermeis
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Maeve Gilchrist
Edinburgh-born harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist has been credited as an innovator on her native instrument and has taken the Celtic (lever) Harp to new levels of performance and visibility. Currently based in Kingston, NY, Maeve tours internationally as a solo artist and composer as well as being a member of the GRAMMY-nominated Silkroad Ensemble, Arooj Aftab’s GRAMMY-winning Vulture Prince Ensemble and as part of the multi-disciplinary quartet Edges of Light. She has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Frankie Gavin, Esperanza Spalding, Bruce Molsky, Ambrose Akinmusire and Solas. As a composer, Maeve straddles the worlds of folk and classical with pieces including her original concerto for symphony orchestra and harp (a co-commission with Luke Benton), a three-movement Samuel Beckett-inspired piece for harp, string quartet and sound samples which was premiered at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival in the spring of 2018 and a number of other pieces for harp ensembles and strings. She is a regular visiting artist at the Berklee College of Music and has had a number of instructional books published by Hal Leonard and 80 Days Publishing. Maeve has released a number of albums to her name on the Adventure Music Record Label as well as being a featured soloist on the Dreamworks blockbuster movie soundtrack, How to Tame Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Her most recent album, The Harpweaver, has garnered international acclaim including a five-star review from the Irish Times who described it as “buoyant, sprightly and utterly beguiling...a snapshot of a musician at the top of her game.” Maeve is the co-music director of the WGBH holiday show A Christmas Celtic Sojourn and the co-artistic director of the brand-new Rockport Celtic Music festival, an innovative new festival focused on cross-curation and the outer-fringes of Celtic Music.
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Kaoru Watanabe
Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe's work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements. His signature skill of merging the music, literature, and aesthetic philosophies of Japan with disparate styles and mediums has made him a much-in-demand collaborator working with such iconic artists as André 3000, Yo-Yo Ma, Wes Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, and Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo. A trained jazz musician, he became the first American to become a performer and artistic director of the ground-breaking Japanese taiko performing arts ensemble Kodo. In 2024, Watanabe launched Bloodlines Interwoven, a multifaceted commissioning project, festival, and ensemble celebrating heritage, immigration, and diaspora through music, cuisine, and storytelling.
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Silkroad
A Grammy Award-winning musical ensemble, Silkroad is a collective of artists representing dozens of nationalities, traditions and ideas, who use music and art to demonstrate how great beauty can emerge from great difference. The Ensemble strives to engage difference, sparking radical collaboration and music with a purpose, for a more hopeful and inclusive world.
Sponsors
Performing Arts programs are supported by 2026 season sponsors Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, with additional lead support from Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund.
Guild Hall’s Performing Arts programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming, and the Anne Wolf Concert Fund.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Gene Bernstein and Kathy Walsh, Amy Cooney and Marty Feinman, John and Joan D’Addario, Suzanne and John Golden, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve and Susan Pesner and Peace, in memory of Michéle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.