Ameen Mokdad’s The Curve

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.

Now, in spring of 2023, Ameen Mokdad is finally coming to the United States for the first time- specifically to Connecticut. His tour, titled Ameen Mokdad’s The Curve, will take him all around the state to tell his story- where he will play his music with only Hartford’s Cuatro Puntos Ensemble. Middletown’s Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet has choreographed his music, under the direction of Elisa Schroth.