Dinuk Wijeratne plays the Chan Centre in The Journeyed Compass, May 5

Sri Lankan composer-conductor-pianist to perform alongside musicians Layale Chaker and Kinan Azmeh

SPONSORED POST BY The Chan Centre

Dinuk Wijeratne.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC is hosting The Journeyed Compass with Dinuk Wijeratne, Layale Chaker, and Kinan Azmeh on May 5 at 8 pm, in the Chan Shun Concert Hall as part of their Chan Centre Presents series.

Award-winning musicians Wijeratne, a Sri Lankan composer, conductor, and pianist; Chaker, a Lebanese violinist and composer; and Azmeh, a Syrian clarinetist and composer, will come together to create highly distinctive music that draws from a multitude of cultural influences. 

Each of the artists is respectively known for their inventive and genre-defying work. In this transporting concert, Middle Eastern and South Asian music will mix for a soulful program inspired by the idea of what “home” means to different people.

A Juno Award-winning musician, Wijeratne’s boundary-crossing art allows him to excel in diverse collaborations with symphony orchestras, string quartets, tabla players, and DJs. He has played at international venues around the world, from the Berlin Philharmonic in Germany to the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands.

Wijeratne grew up in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai before moving to Manchester, U.K. to study composition at the Royal Northern College of Music. He made his Carnegie Hall debut while still a student in 2004, performing alongside Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble.

Chaker’s melodic world lies at the intersection of classical contemporary, Arabic music, jazz, and improvisation. Her first album Inner Rhyme, released in 2019, captures the essence of testimonials on life, death, war, and love that form the heart of Arabic poetry. A first public reading of Ruinous Gods, her debut opera in collaboration with Lisa Schlesinger, was held in March at the National Opera Center in New York City.

Hailed by critics and audiences alike, Azmeh has gained international recognition for his distinctive voice across diverse musical genres. In addition to his own Arab-jazz quartet CityBand and his Hewar trio, he has also been playing with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble since 2012, whose 2017 Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home features Kinan as a clarinetist and composer.

Tickets to see these talented artists in The Journeyed Compass are available here.

Post sponsored by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.