Mahmoud “Mood” Chouki performs live from his living room. Support Oscar directly through PayPal (www.paypal.me/mahmoudchouki), Venmo (@mahmoud-chouki) or Quickpay (mahmoud.chouki@gmail.com). Please help us keep the arts going in our great city!

Mahmoud “Mood” Chouki (Morocco, 1984) is a master guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. From the age of eight, Mood trained at the Conservatory of Larache in northern Morocco and continued on at the National Conservatory in Rabat, with a focus in music theory and classical guitar. Soon after graduating, he embarked on a journey throughout Morocco with a keen interest in traditional instruments of the Maghreb and Africa. His repertoire started to integrate the sounds and rhythms of various regions, using both the classical guitar and instruments such as the loutar, a traditional instrument of the Middle Atlas region of Morocco; the sintir, a Sub-Saharan instrument from the Sahel region (Mali); theoud, an oriental lute; the Algerian mandole, a steel-string fretted instrument resembling an elongated mandolin; the Bağlama saz, a Turkish long necked bowl-lute; the banjo, and a variety of percussion instruments. His music draws from a number of influences including classical (Europe), Andalusian (Southern Spain), Levantine (Middle East/West Asia), Maghrebian (North Africa), Latin (South America), and Jazz (United States).