Dear Annie,

As we welcome the first week of July, we are pleased to offer a new live album release:

The Curve - Live from Hartford

Ameen Mokdad & Cuatro Puntos Ensemble

​recorded live in a performance with Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet on May 21, 2023 in Hartford, Connecticut

His home in Mosul was raided and his instruments destroyed as part of a crackdown on all music and art. His city’s captors threatened to slice his fingers to bleed out the “demon” that was making him play and compose music. None of this stopped Iraqi musician Ameen Mokdad from composing and recording. None of this stopped him from performing a concert atop ruins as shells exploded nearby him. None of this stopped him from becoming the “violinist who defied Islamic State” - a term coined by Reuters in 2017 in their coverage of Mokdad following the liberation of Mosul. 

In the spring of 2023, Ameen Mokdad came to the United States for the first time- specifically to Connecticut. His tour, titled Ameen Mokdad’s The Curve, took him all around the state to tell his story. Now you can listen to an album recording of a live performance- recorded on stage at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Hartford.