Clarinettist and composer Kinan Azmeh (Damascus, 1976) began studying violin at the age of five but switched to the clarinet one year later because, being left-handed, he found bowing with his right hand a challenge. He received a diploma in performance from the Damascus Higher Institute of Music and an electrical engineering degree from the University of Damascus. He continued his studies of the clarinet at the Juilliard School in New York and graduated with a doctorate in music from the City University of New York. 

As a clarinettist, Kinan Azmeh is active in the genres of classical, jazz and world music. He has performed as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which is made up of a variable group of young musicians from the Middle East. He has shared the stage with the Kurdish singer Aynur and the Armenian duduk player Djivan Gasparian. He appeared with the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra at the opening of the Damascus Opera House in 2004. In the Netherlands, he has performed with jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans and pianist Jeroen van Vliet, among others. 

He is a member of Hewar, a quintet of musicians all sharing a Syrian background, as well as the Kinan Azmeh CityBand quartet, a group that devotes itself to fusing Arab music with jazz. He is also a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and serves as the artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Players, an ensemble dedicated to contemporary music from throughout the Arab world. His compositions include works for solo clarinet, orchestra and chamber music ensembles. He has also written music for film and dance performances. Azmeh was previously in the Netherlands for performances with the Fuse String Quartet on the Podium Witteman Live television programme, as well as at the Morgenland Festival and in the Bimhuis.