Kinan Azmeh and the Brown Jazz Band

Name: Kinan Azmeh and the Brown Jazz Band
Start: 2026-04-03T19:00:00-04:00
Location: The Lindemann Performing Arts Center

Schedule

Fri, 03 Apr, 2026 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

The Lindemann Performing Arts Center | Providence, RI

The Brown Jazz Band performs the 38th Annual Eric Adam Brudner ’84 Memorial Concert at 7pm on Friday, April 3 at the Lindemann Performing Arts Center. With Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, the Brown Jazz Band dives into a musical world between Damascus, New York, and Providence — music beyond the cultural divide. Tickets: $25; $10 Brown staff/faculty; $5 students.
Kinan Azmeh’s residency at Brown has received support from the Brown University Center for Middle East Studies.
About Kinan Azmeh and the Program for this Concert
Kinan Azmeh is a world-renowned clarinetist and composer. As a soloist, he plays with Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, the Silk Road Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Kinan was born in Damascus, where Arabic and Levantine sounds were unmistakably in the air. After attending the Juilliard School of Music in New York, he launched an incredible music career presenting his unique artistic vision: music without confinement.
With regard to his latest album, FLOW, Azmeh said the following: “I was the Damascene in New York and the New Yorker in Damascus. I am now more interested in being the New Yorker in New York and the Damascene in Damascus… Both cities with all their contrasting qualities are intellectually stimulating to me. Places, people, nature, tragedies and celebrations, all of these elements have found their way into the music I create. Being in a constant state of FLOW is now my new zone of comfort.”
For this concert, Azmeh and the Brown Jazz Band will perform music from FLOW. It will be a celebration of music that merges Middle Eastern, European, and Jazz sounds — music without borders.
Learn more about Kinan Azmeh at his website.
About the Annual Eric Adam Brudner ’84 Memorial Concert
Eric Adam Brudner graduated in 1984 after distinguishing himself as one of the finest students to pass through the Department of Music in recent memory. Eric was a talented pianist and composer. He was the founder and president of an active Departmental Undergraduate Group that enlivened the department and contributed ideas for curricular and extracurricular programs that have had a continuing impact on our offerings. While still an undergraduate, Eric was a busy professional, playing jazz in local clubs and successfully teaching piano to dozens of fellow students. He was awarded the Buxtehude and Arlan Coolidge Prizes in music in his junior and senior years respectively. Eric was a favorite of faculty and students alike. He brightened our classes and our lives with his effervescent good humor and quick wit, and he touched our hearts with his music. These annual concerts are dedicated to the memory of our student, friend, and family member in celebration of his talent and aspirations.
The Brudner Memorial Concerts have become an important tradition at Brown. They began in 1988 with a concert featuring compositions by Brown students and visiting composers. Members of the Brown Jazz Band were well represented in the first three concerts. In the inaugural Brudner Concert, Dan Seiden’s Eyes can not was performed by Dan (who sang and played guitar) along with Jon Feinberg (drums) and Ethan Basch (bass). The second and third concerts included original compositions performed by The Jazz Tarboosh (Don Katz, saxophone, Jon Schapiro, trumpet, Andy Woo, trombone, Steve Schenfeld, Joe Mulholland and Russ Faegenburg piano, Greg Levine, guitar, Mark Tourian, bass, Eric Levine and Chris Sbrollini, drums). Beginning in 1991, with the fourth Brudner Concert, world-renowned musicians have visited Brown and performed with Brown student musicians in successive Brudner Concerts.