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DMITRI ZRAJEVSKI

DMITRI ZRAJEVSKI

Kinan Azmeh

November 22nd

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November 22nd is a meditative work that tries to depict that ambiguous feeling one encounters by feeling at home somewhere far from one’s original home. I wrote this piece in the US inspired by the sonic memory of a marketplace that used to exist behind my parents’ apartment back in Damascus, it seemed to have a slow and steady pulse to it similar to the rhythm of life which keeps moving regardless of our emotions about it.

Over the years the piece has enjoyed several lives, as lead sheet, as the middle movement of my Suite for Improvisor and Orchestra and as other versions created by colleagues. The work simply tries to blur the lines between the composed and the improvised, which comes from my belief that some of the best written music is one that sounds spontaneous and improvised, and some of the best improvisations are the ones that sound structured as if composed. This work is meant to give great room for the soloist to become a composer on the spot and to play freely within the larger structure of the work.

— KINAN AZMEH

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