Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, the country has sunk into a humanitarian crisis deeper than ever. Millions were already facing extreme poverty, and the Taliban’s unjust policies, including preventing girls and women from studying, has only made it worse. When the notoriously inhumane and cruel group was last in power in the late 90s, music was completely banned. Today, they are once again silencing the sound of music. At the hands of the Taliban, the country’s only music school has been converted into a military outpost, instruments have been destroyed, and due to the persecution, musicians have either had to flee the country or go into hiding.
In 2021, weeks before the Taliban took control of Kabul and once again banned music, Arson Fahim graduated from the Afghanistan National Institute of music and moved to the US to pursue his studies at Longy, where he was awarded a scholarship. Arson is a pianist, composer, and conductor from Afghanistan. A fierce believer in the power of music to make the world a better place by being a catalyst for activism and social change, Arson’s music is often inspired by the tragedies and injustices of war. Arson strives for his music to be a symbol of freedom, resilience, and perseverance, and a source of peace, solace, and hope even in the darkest of times.
Cuatro Puntos (“four points” in Spanish) is a non-profit organization that works to uplift persecuted, silenced or underrepresented music voices from around the world. Based in Connecticut, Cuatro Puntos is the parent organization for two permanent ensembles: Cuatro Puntos Ensemble (a varying professional ensemble, with an emphasis on strings) and Music Moves Hartford Street Choir (an ensemble of adults who face housing or food insecurity in Hartford, in partnership with Christ Church Cathedral). 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 ensembles, 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 (highlighting musical oppression by extremists in Iraq); Jaipur to Cairo (underrepresented composers/genres of the Middle East); and Rosegarden of Light (young musicians of Afghanistan). Current projects include Contemporary Ukrainian Composers (commissioning composers inside Ukraine in 2022/23) and 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 reviews by Fanfare. 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, Israel 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.
