Kinan Azmeh is the only Syrian and first Arab to win the first prize at the Nicolay Rubinstein international youth competition in Moscow, Russia, 1997. He holds two BA degrees, one in Clarinet performance from Damascus high institute of music and drama where he studied with Anatoly Moratof, and BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Damascus. He completed his Masters degree and graduate diploma in music from the Juilliard School in New York, studying with Charles Neidich.

Born in Damascus, Syria in 1976, Kinan studied at the Arab conservatory of music in Damascus with Shukry Shawkey and Nicolay Viovanof. He has appeared as a soloist in performances around the wold including solo appearances at the Tchaikovsky grand hall in Moscow in 1997, Solo performances with the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra during its first American tour (UCLA's Royce hall, Orange County performing arts center, Los-Angeles, USA) with Solhi Al-Wadi conducting, BBC Proms festival at the Royal Albert hall, London, the premiere of two clarinet concertos written for him by Dutch composer Guus Janssen at Lincoln center in New York, and by Zaid Jabri at the opening of the Syrian opera house 2004.

As Principal Clarinetist, kinan performed under the baton of reputed conductors such as John Adams, Roger Norrington, Daniel Barenboim,James DePriest, Charles Dutoit, Itzhak Perlman, Julius Rudel, Larry Rachleff, Ahmad el Saedi, and Solhi Al-Wadi . In addition to his interest in Classical Music as a soloist, Chamber Musician and Orchestra member, he enjoys improvising on his Clarinet and tenor Saxophone. He has appeared as soloist with Sylvain Kassab, Marcel Khalife, Elliott Sharp, Kani Karaca and Hot house Jazz band, as well as being member of the New York-based NEOLEXICA group and the Syrian pop group Kulna Sawa".

Kinan co-started the ensemble “Hewar" with Issam Rafea in the year 2003 and led the group in two American tours 2004,2005, including performances at the reputed Kennedy center. He is also a frequent guest faculty at the Apple hill center for Chamber music in New Hampshire.
Kinan’s compositions include works for solo Violin, Solo Clarinet with Max/Msp, works for mixed quintets and interactive works for Clarinet, computers and live illustrations with artist Kevrok Mourad as well as the original sound track for the film "Rigodon" by Keith Sicat and Sari Dalena and "Not for sale" and "the day i died" by the Iranian film maker Maryam Keshavarz.