Pre Concert Conversation begins at 3:00pm (optional)
Reception at 3:45pm
Concert at 4:30pm
Suggested donation: $20/person. Can be made at the door or online when reserving ticket.

Concert Program:

Be a part of improvisations that take you to on a journey... to a warm summer's night, drinking tea atop an ancient sandstone building, while local musicians get lost in a unique world of their very own. Iraqi violinist Ameen Mokdad will be joined by muscians of Cuatro Puntos Ensemble as they improvise on various modes of the maqam system, a system of scales used for centuries in areas of Arab and Persian influence. This live performance will be entirely improved, and it will be recorded for a live album release.

Cuatro Puntos ("four points" in Spanish) is a non-profit organization that works to amplify persecuted, silenced or underrepresented music voices from around the world. Based in Connecticut, Cuatro Puntos is the parent organization for the performing group Cuatro Puntos Ensemble, and incorporates this flexible ensemble into many projects. Cuatro Puntos’ work is long-term project based, and projects often last many years. A project usually consists of a partnership with a musician or musical group who considers their art form as silenced, persecuted, or underrepresented. Through logistical and financial support, and often via musical partnerships with our permanent ensemble, Cuatro Puntos develops opportunities to spotlight the underrepresented musician or art form. The material results of a project vary, but they most often include: a recorded album (distributed on an international label), live concerts, commissions of new music, video projects, and music creation based on an intercultural dialogue model. Our album discography chronicles our most in-depth projects: Ji bo sê kes çay (preserving traditional Kurdish music); Through The Eyes of Children (highlighting American middle school students who speak out against youth violence); Ameen Mokdad’s The Curve and The Curve Live From Hartford (highlighting musical oppression by extremists in Iraq); Jaipur to Cairo (underrepresented composers/genres of the Middle East); and Rosegarden of Light (partnering with young musicians in Afghanistan). This year's coming project releases include Contemporary Ukrainian Composers (commissioned composers inside Ukraine who wrote their works in 2022 and 2023) and Unsilenced, an album of music recorded in 2023 by Afghan musicians who are in hiding inside the country. Our albums have been published on Naxos, Toccata Classics, Métier, and Arkadash. The quality of our work has been praised around the world, with airtime on NPR, BBC, and glowing reviews by Fanfare Magazine. Cuatro Puntos Ensemble has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as in Bolivia, Brazil, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Afghanistan as they work alongside underrepresented musicians. Tracks from our albums have been included on the soundtrack for films produced in England, Australia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and our organization has presented at prestigious universities such as New England Conservatory (Boston), Columbia University (New York), Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Germany), and Goldsmiths College (London). We invite you to visit our website to experience our projects. You may interact by attending a live concert, listening to our albums, or searching our Monday Music video archives. CuatroPuntos.org