A research concert by Ameen Mokdad MA ’26
Friday, December 5, 2025, 12noon-1pm
Smith Reading Room, Olin Library
252 Church Street, Middletown, CT
Free and open to the public
What happens when a single melody, text, or story is claimed by multiple cultures as their own? Ameen Mokdad MA ’26 digs into the archives for a concert of songs with disputed origins, looking for the music we share in common.
This research concert by graduate student Ameen Mokdad ’26 is inspired by the 2003 documentary “Whose Is This Song?” by Bulgarian director Adela Peeva. As Peeva describes in her synopsis,
“In a small nice restaurant in Istanbul I was having dinner with friends from various Balkan countries – a Greek, a Macedonian, a Turk, a Serb, and me, the Bulgarian. There I heard The Song. As soon as it sounded we all started singing it, everyone in his own language. Everyone claimed that the song came from his own country. Then we found ourselves caught in a fierce fight – Whose is this Song?”
Mokdad contends that had he been at that dinner, he also would have claimed this song! As evidence, he cites the fact that the probable composer shares a name with Mokdad’s home city of Mosul, Iraq.
Sponsored by the World Music Archives & Music Library. Email wma@wesleyan.edu for more information.
Biography
Ameen Mokdad MA’26, born 1989 in Baghdad, graduated from the Agriculture and Forestry College at the University of Mosul in 2013. He lived in the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul from 2003 until after the ISIS occupation. Ameen started learning and making music in 2009 and has been composing for film and theatre since 2014. He has acted in and directed experimental theatre plays since 2017, and has worked as a music teacher and conductor since 2018. In 2019 he founded the Light Orchestra in the city of Mosul. He is a composer and musician in the play Taqasim Ala Alhayat, written by the Iraqi director Jawad al-Asadi and based on Anton Chekhov’s novel Ward No. 6. Taqasim Ala Alhayat had presentations at the 11th Arab Theater Festival in Cairo (2019), the 54th International Festival of Carthage (2018) and at the Muntada Theater in Baghdad (2018). He are regularly curated and performed in street performances as a musician and dancer since 2017 across Iraqi cities, keeping with his deep personal belief that music should be brought to people where they are. He has also been a member of TARKIB Baghdad Contemporary Arts Institute since 2017. Ameen has an internationally acclaimed album called The Curve , featuring music written in the city of Mosul during ISIS occupation. He recorded The Curve alongside the American Cuatro Puntos Ensemble, and it has since received International acclaim. You can find Ameen’s albums and singles on a variety of streaming platforms.