Cuatro Puntos Ensemble

   Cuatro Puntos Ensemble is ensemble in residence for Cuatro Puntos, an organization in Hartford, Connecticut dedicated to intercultural dialogue through the writing, performance, and teaching of music. Cuatro Puntos Ensemble collaborates with local, national, and international guest artists to produce genre-defying and culturally significant concert programing and album recordings. Although primarily made of two violinists, two violists, and a cellist, the ensemble varies in instrumentation and genre as they adapt to the changing needs of modern music making, and as they tackle genres previously unknown to their instruments due to systemic oppression and racism in Western music making . Together they aim for the highest in artistic excellence while centering underrepresented, silenced, and persecuted performing musicians and composers.   Cuatro Puntos Ensemble has been reviewed by Fanfare Magazine as having a “great depth of sound” and “virtuostic performance”. They have performed extensively, in their various formats, throughout the United States as well as in Bolivia, Brazil, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Afghanistan. To date they have produced nine albums of varying genres and styles on major international record labels like Métier, Toccata Classics, and Naxos, ​and are currently signed to the genre-defying label Arkadash Records. They have been included on the soundtrack for films produced in England, Australia, Iraq, 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). The ensemble was founded in 2012 and carries the name Spanish version of their name, "four points", in recognition of our first international partners in Tarija, Bolivia. 
Discography:

Sounds of the Silk Road - Arkadash Records 2024
partners: Ameen Mokdad

The Curve, Live from Hartford - Arkadash Records 2024
partners: Ameen Mokdad & Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet

Ji bo sê kes çay (Tea for Three) - Arkadash Records 2023
partners: Mücahit Poyraz & Ameen Mokdad

Through The Eyes of Children - Arkadash Records, 2022
partners: The National Campaign to Stop Violence: Do The Write Thing, Ameen Mokdad

Sounds of Persia - Arkadash Records 2021
partners: Reza Vali, Dariush Saghafi

​The Curve - Arkadash Records, 2020
partners: Ameen Mokdad

Centennial Cole - Truth Revolution Records, 2019
Cuatro Puntos Ensemble accompanies Orice Jenkins

Jaipur to Cairo - Métier Records, 2019
partners: Mohamed-Aly Farag, Reza Vali, Gilad Cohen, Sadie Harrison

The Rosegarden of Light - Toccata Classics, 2016 
partners: Sadie Harrison, The Afghan Women's Orchestra "Ensemble Zohra", The Junior Ensemble of Traditional Afghan Instruments
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From The Countryside - Arkadash Records 2026   COMING SOON

Coming Home: A Hartford Collage -Arkadash Records 2026  COMING SOON
partners; David Macbride

Contemporary Ukrainian Composers - Arkadash Records 2026   COMING SOON
partners: Cuatro Puntos Chamber Orchestra (Kevin Bishop, conductor); Roksana Smirnova; Anastasia Tikhanovska; Tetiana Kravchenko

Songs of Love & War - Arkadash Records 2026   COMING SOON
partners: Arson Fahim
Great depth of sound... virtuostic performance"
                            - Fanfare Magazine

Permanent members of Cuatro Puntos Ensemble

Picture


Aaron Packard 
violin
At a time when we are bombarded every day by images of the world in crisis, The Rosegarden of Light is a joyful celebration of musicians who share a fundamental right to express themselves through the universal language of music.”
                       - Blackmore Vale Magazine, review of The Rosegarden of Light album
"Dedicated to amplifying silenced, persecuted & underrepresented musicians and their unique styles of music"