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About the Artists.

Layale Chaker, violin

Deemed a “Rising Star” by BBC Music Magazine and raised on the verge of several musical streams since her childhood, Layale Cahker is a violinist, composer, and the 20202022 Jerome Hill Fellow.

She debuted her musical training at the National Higher Conservatory of Beirut, Conservatoire Regional de Paris, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. As a violinist and composer, she has completed commissions and solo appearances with Holland Baroque, International Contemporary Ensemble, Oxford Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, the New World Symphony, and Babylon Orchestra. She has performed at the London Jazz Festival, Alderburgh Festival, Morgenland Festival Osnabrueck, Junger Kunstler Festival Bayreuth, the Lucerne Festival for Contemporary Music, Impuls’ Festival, Beethoven Festival Bonn, and Avignon Festival, among others, and concert halls such as The Berlin Philharmonic, Abbaye de Royaumont, Hancher Auditorium, The Stone, National Sawdust, the Banff Centre, and the Royal Albert Hall. Her debut album with her ensemble Sarafand, Inner Rhyme, was listed as “Top of The World” by Songlines with a 5-star review, rated number two on NPR’s 10 Best Releases, number one for several weeks on the World Charts of iTunes and Amazon Music, and has received praises by the BBC Music Magazine, The New York Times, The Strad, Strings Magazine, and Jazz World, among others.

Kinan Azmeh, clarinet

Hailed as “intensely soulful” and a “virtuoso” by The New York Times and “spellbinding” by The New Yorker, clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh was the winner of the OpusKlassik award in 2019. Azmeh has gained international recognition for what the CBC has called his “incredibly rich sound” and his distinctive compositional voice across diverse musical genres. Originally from Damascus, Syria, Azmeh brings his music to all corners of the world as a soloist, composer, and improviser. His compositions include several works for solo, chamber, and orchestral music, as well as music for film, live illustration, and electronics.