Leyya Tawil’s Dance Elixir with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh

Alwan for the Arts Presents

Leyya Tawil’s Dance Elixir with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh
Friday, September 25, 2009 9:00 P.M.

Featuring guest dancers Xan Burley, Jordan Risdon and Alex Springer

Tickets: $15.00

"Contemporary dance choreographer Leyya Tawil and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh offer an evening of solos and duets, both composed and improvised. Tawil performs her solo Mercy Starts Now (2009) to an original score by Topher Keyes. This is the third work in her Saints and Angels series. She also offers a sneak preview of You Are Now X, a trio for NYC-based dancers Alex Springer and Xan Burley. Azmeh will perform a selection of composition selected from his touring repertory.

The evening will also feature a series of duets for Tawil and Azmeh. Both accomplished composers/performers, they approach their duet improvisations with a clear structural and expressive intention.



ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

LEYYA MONA TAWIL is the Artistic Director of Leyya Tawil’s Dance Elixir. She approaches dance from an architectural perspective and infuses her movement-driven works with a deliberate eye on contemporary style and symbolism. The result is a body of work that reverberates with meaning and is delivered with fierce technique and formal structure.

Ms. Tawil has received numerous grants and awards and her work has been presented nationally and internationally including at the Beirut International Platform On Dance 2009, the San Francisco International Arts Festival (SF), abd The Flea (NYC), Ms. Tawil last performed at Alwan for the Arts in winter 2008.

KINAN AZMEH was born in Damascus. In 1997 he became the first Arab to win premier prize at the 1997 Nicolai Rubinstein International Competition in Moscow. He is a graduate of New York's Juilliard School, and of both the High institute of Music and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. Mr. Azmeh has appeared worldwide as a soloist and composer in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and has shared the stage with Marcel Khalife, Francois Rabbath, Mari Kimura, Elliott Sharp, Katia Tchemberdji, among others.

 Mr. Azmeh's compositions include several works for soloist, orchestra, and chamber ensemble, film, live illustration, and electronics. His multimedia work “Gilgamesh” with visual artist Kevork Mourad has been touring the US and the Middle East since 2006. He has recorded several albums with his ensemble HEWAR, among others. Mr. Azmeh is artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Music Ensemble, with whom he released an album of new music written especially for the ensemble by various Arab composers."


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