Hassan Al-Mufti is an accomplished performer, teacher and composer who joined the CMS faculty in December 2001. Hassan came to the United States as a refugee from Iraq in September 2001. Prior to leaving his native country, he studied piano at the Music and Ballet School of Baghdad under Igor Chernyavsky and Agnes Bashir, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in music at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad. He returned to his alma mater to teach piano to junior-high and first-year university students. He later spent six years teaching and performing in Amman, Jordan, at the Jordan Music Center and New English School, respectively, before his arrival in Buffalo. Hassan’s piano performances have taken him across the Middle East and United States, including performances for Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan and the Royal Family, the Jordanian Diplomatic Corps and the American Ambassador to Jordan. In the United States, he has performed in such cities as Buffalo, San Francisco, Chicago, Albany, NY, and Enfield, CT.