Fly solo: Santa Fe Pro Musica fall concert to feature concerto grosso

Santa Fe Pro Musica’s fall concert features Syrian-born clarinetist Kinan Azmeh bringing some soul to the art form.

“Art of Concerto Grosso” celebrates the conversational virtuosity of multiple soloists in dialogue with one another. The concert takes place on Saturday, Nov. 9, and Sunday, Nov. 10, at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe.

A member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, Azmeh is a colleague of Pro Musica artistic director Colin Jacobsen, who also performed with Silk Road, said senior advisor Carol Redman.

Fly solo: Santa Fe Pro Musica fall concert to feature concerto grosso

Jacobsen is “bringing in first-rate performers who also are composers,” she said. Azmeh brings the 18th century Baroque into the 21st century, she added.

The musicians will perform Azmeh’s “Concertino Grosso,” commissioned by Carnegie Hall in 2017. The piece features clarinet, violin, guitar and percussion backed by a string ensemble.

“You have a wide variety of instrumental voices,” Redman said.

A concerto is characterized by a single soloist with an orchestra. A concerto grosso features a larger group of instrumental soloists.

The musicians also will play Antonio Vivaldi’s “Concerto in B Minor (for four solo violins), RV 580, Alessandro Scarlatti’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 in F Minor” and Ernest Bloch’s “Concerto Grosso No. 1” from the Romantic period with solo strings and piano.

The program will end with Azmeh’s “The Wedding from Suite for Improvisor and Orchestra,” Redman said.

“It’s like a little encore piece from his ‘Suite.’”

Originally from Damascus, Syria, Azmeh has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Rider and others, and he also writes for film. He was recently appointed to the National Council for the Arts on a nomination by President Joe Biden.