A Great depth of sound... virtuostic performance"  
   - Fanfare Magazine

Cuatro Puntos Ensemble

Format: Core string quintet with various guest musicians

​Genre: Classical, Contemporary, World Music 

Specialty: chamber music partnerships with musicians of other genres. 

Booking information: please email kevin@cuatropuntos.org. 

Bio:   Cuatro Puntos is a multi-faceted, non-profit organization that activates music as a pragmatic and universally accessible stimulus for social change, cultural awareness, and empowerment of the underserved. Serving Connecticut, Cuatro Puntos hosts a mixed-genre concert series in multiple cities as well as music/curriculum alignment programs in school classrooms in Hartford (in partnership with Hartford Performs) and beyond. Our roster of local, professional musicians, known as Cuatro Puntos Ensemble, collaborate with local, national, and international guest artists to produce genre-defying and culturally significant concert programing and album recordings. Aiming for the highest in artistic excellence while working alongside socially significant artists such as the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and musician activist Ameen Mokdad (Mosul, Iraq), Cuatro Puntos Ensemble has been reviewed by Fanfare Magazine as having a “great depth of sound” and “virtuostic performance”. They have performed extensively throughout the United States as well as in Bolivia, Brazil, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Afghanistan. To date they have produced six albums of varying genres and styles on major international record labels like Métier and Toccata Classics. They have been included on the soundtrack for films produced in England, Australia, and Afghanistan, and have been guest lecturers at prestigious universities such as New England Conservatory (Boston), Columbia University (New York), Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Germany), and Goldsmiths College (London). Cuatro Puntos' crowning achievement, in equal partnership and co-foundership with Hartford's Christ Church Cathedral, is Music Moves Connecticut. MMCT is a participatory music program building community and a safe space for expression among those living on the streets, in shelters, and in various states of housing insecurity around the state. It includes Music Moves Norwich and the Music Moves Hartford Street Choir. Recently featured by WNPR and NBC, this first street choir in the northeast has been taking the city by storm with its animated performances. All of Cuatro Puntos' programs aim to activate music's potential as one of many relevant, viable, and complementary methods for creating a more just and inclusive society.

Connect: CuatroPuntos.org; Facebook: CuatroPuntosChamberMusic; Instagram: CuatroPuntos.CT; Youtube: CuatroPuntosChamberMusic; Spotify: Cuatro Puntos; 860-498-3279; kevin@cuatropuntos.org

Albums with Arkadash Records

MAY 1, 2020 - PREORDER NOW
The Curve - Ameen Mokdad & Cuatro Puntos Resident Musicians
​Original music by Ameen Mokdad powerfully arranged for strings, middle eastern percussion, and voice

Iraqi composer and multi-instrumentalist Ameen Mokdad was trapped in hiding by ISIS for nearly two years in his hometown of Mosul. During that time we wrote an extraordinary repertoire of powerfully emotional music. He arranged it later for the Cuatro Puntos Ensemble and himself. On this album you will hear a string quartet along with Ameen on dumbek, violin, and in recitation of poetry in Arabic. 

Fear - Havocs - Hope In God - Confusion - Kholo Fajher - From Her - Lips - Secret - First Momento (The Birth) - Night in the Prince Kingdom - Sognatore - The Curve - Viaggio - Clouds - Tears of Flower - Ween - Over the Mountain - Yoqaal - Yosur

JUNE 1, 2020 - PREORDER NOW
Sounds of Persia - Dariush Saghafi & Cuatro Puntos Ensemble
Music for Persian santur (hammered dulcimer) and string quartet

Be transported into another sound world as you listen to a traditional improvised solo by the world's leading master of Persian santur, Dr. Dariush Saghafi. Then hear a string quartet by Dr. Reza Vali using ancient Persian and Dastgâh modes, and finish with a rousing piece by Vali for both string quartet and santur. 

Improvised santur solo in Ashur mode - Reza Vali: String Quartet No. 4 "Ormavi" - Reza Vali: Ashoob for santur & string quartet

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JULY 1, 2020 - PREORDER NOW
From The Countryside - String Quintets Based On Folk Music

Enjoy music for string quintet (2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos) based on folk tunes from the countryside. Performed by: Annie Trépanier, violin; Aaron Packard, violin; Steve Larson, viola; Kevin Bishop, viola; Allan Ballinger, cello

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Phantasy Quintet 
Antonin Dvorak: Quintet for Strings Op. 97 "American"
Kevin Bishop: Fantasy on Kurdish Themes for string quintet

Other Albums