Notes for Peace

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The Kinan Azmeh Quartet played in a recent benefit concert in New York. Still from FLYP Media's video

A group of the Iraqi college students that FLYP followed this fall gathered in New York last week for a benefit concert featuring performances by The Kinan Azmeh Quartet (led by Syrian superstar Azmeh and Karam Salem, a pianist and member of the Iraqi Student Project (ISP) who is currently studying at Holy Cross College.

Julliard-trained Azmeh plays clarinet in a mix of genres, including jazz, classical and traditional Syrian arrangements. Azmeh, who is one of the Arab world’s most successful crossover musicians, performed work including “139th Street,” devoted to his upper Manhattan neighborhood, and “Airport,” in which he joked was composed as a creative way to pass the time during frequent detainments at John F. Kennedy Airport.

ISP is seeking to raise money to support a new crop of students who will enter U.S. colleges in the fall of 2009. The concert was organized by Musicians for Harmony, a group formed in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Watch a clip from the performance below.