Afghanistan National Institute of Music

Last updated
Afghanistan National Institute of Music
Location
Information
EstablishedJune 20, 2010
DirectorDr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast
Website http://www.anim-music.org/

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) is a school of music in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was founded in 2010 by the Afghan-Australian ethnomusicologist Dr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast, and offers a curriculum combining the tuition of both Afghan and Western music. [1] [2] ANIM is a co-educational institute. [3] [4]

Per an agreement between Sarmast and the Afghan Ministry of Education, the school accommodates both exceptionally talented students and underprivileged children. [1] [5]

History

In 2006, Dr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast, then a Research Fellow at the Monash School of Music and Asia Institute, of Australia's Monash University, returned to Afghanistan to assess the situation after many years of living in exile. [6] A second trip was made in 2007 to discuss the implementation of the pilot project with the Afghan authorities and more precisely, the rebuilding of music education through establishing a dedicated music school for disadvantaged Afghan children. In April 2008, after two years of negotiations with Afghan authorities, Sarmast went again to Afghanistan to lead and implement the establishment of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). [6]

In 2013, ANIM's Afghan Youth Orchestra toured the United States, including performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. [2] [5]

In 2014, a suicide bomb attack at a student concert killed an audience member and the bomber, [7] and injured many more, including Sarmast, who was nearly killed and lost some of his hearing. [8] [9] [10]

In 2015, the first Afghan female conductor, 17-year-old Negin Khpalwak, held her first concert with an all-female ensemble. [11] [12] [13] [10] As of 2018, a third of the 250 students are female and the proportion is growing; [11] in 2019, Sarmast took the all-female Zohra Orchestra on a European tour. [8]

In 2018, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and Ahmad Sarmast were awarded the Polar Music Prize. [14]

After the Taliban takeover on 15 August 2021, the school's musical instruments were destroyed and ANIM's administrators and students relocated to Lisbon, Portugal. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afghanistan</span> Country in Central and South Asia

Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east. Occupying 652,864 square kilometers (252,072 sq mi) of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains in the north and the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's largest city and serves as its capital. According to the World Population review, as of 2021, Afghanistan's population is 40.2 million. The National Statistics Information Authority of Afghanistan estimated the population to be 32.9 million as of 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmad Shah Massoud</span> Afghan military leader (1953–2001)

Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s, he led the government's military wing against rival militias; after the Taliban takeover, he was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kabul</span> Capital and the largest city of Afghanistan

Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. According to 2023 estimates, the population of Kabul was 4.95 million people. In contemporary times, the city has served as Afghanistan's political, cultural, and economical center, and rapid urbanisation has made Kabul the 75th-largest city in the world and the country's primate city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taliban</span> Islamic political and armed movement founded in Afghanistan

The Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a militant Pashtun nationalist organization in Afghanistan with close ties to Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism. It ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown following the American invasion. It recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 following the departure of most coalition forces, after nearly 20 years of insurgency, and currently controls all of the country. However, its government is not recognized by any country. The Taliban government has been internationally condemned for restricting human rights in Afghanistan, including the right of women and girls to work and to have an education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashraf Ghani</span> President of Afghanistan from 2014 to 2021 (born 1949)

Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is an Afghan former politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.

Kabul University is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd District of the capital Kabul, near the Ministry of Higher Education. It was founded in 1931 by King Mohammed Nadir Shah, whose prime minister at the time was his younger brother, Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmad Zahir</span> Singer, songwriter and composer

Ahmad Zahir was an Afghan singer, songwriter and composer. Dubbed the "Elvis of Afghanistan", he is widely considered the all-time greatest singer of Afghanistan. The majority of his songs were sung in Dari, and he also sang many songs in Pashto, as well as a few in Russian, Urdu and English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in Afghanistan</span> Overview of education in Afghanistan

Education in Afghanistan includes K–12 and higher education, which is under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education. In 2021, there were nearly 10 million students and 220,000 teachers in Afghanistan. The nation still requires more schools and teachers. Soon after the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021, they banned girls from secondary education. Some provinces still allow secondary education for girls despite the ban. In December 2022, the Taliban government also prohibited university education for females in Afghanistan, sparking protests and international condemnation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Directorate of Security</span> Former national intelligence and security service of Afghanistan

The National Directorate of Security was the national intelligence and security service of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul, and it had field offices and training facilities in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The NDS was part of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).

<i>Afghan Star</i> Afghan TV Show

Afghan Star was a reality television show competition that searched for the most talented singers across Afghanistan. The program was broadcast on the TOLO channel. Afghan Star premiered in 2005, four years after the fall of the Taliban, which had outlawed singing in 1996, and ended after fifteen seasons in 2021 after the Taliban regained power and banned music. It was one of the most-watched shows in Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Afghanistan</span> Overview of the status of women in Afghanistan

Women's rights in Afghanistan have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period as well as the regime in power. After King Amanullah Khan's attempts to modernize the country in the 1920s, women officially gained equality under the 1964 Constitution. However, these rights were taken away in the 1990s through different temporary rulers such as the mujahideen and the Taliban during the Afghan civil war. During the first Taliban regime (1996–2001), women had very little to no freedom, specifically in terms of civil liberties. When the Taliban was overthrown by the United States following the 9/11 attacks, women's rights gradually improved under the presidential Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Women were de jure equal to men under the 2004 Constitution.

The Centre d'Enseignement Français en Afghanistan (CEFA) consists of two Franco-Afghan schools in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan, together educating around 6,000 Afghan students.

Ahmad Naser Sarmast is an Afghan-Australian ethnomusicologist. He is the founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negin Khpalwak</span>

Negin Khpalwak is a female conductor leading the Zohra - the first all-female orchestra in Afghanistan from Afghanistan National Institute for Music. On February, 2017, the orchestra played at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zohra Orchestra</span> All-female orchestra in Afghanistan

The Zohra Orchestra, also known as the Afghan Women's Orchestra and Ensemble Zohra, is Afghanistan's first all-female orchestra, named after the music goddess in Persian writings. Founded in 2015, it has been in exile since the 2021 seizure of Kabul by the Taliban.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic Republic of Afghanistan</span> 2004–2021 government of Afghanistan

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic that ruled Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations, which were formed after the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan that had toppled the partially recognized Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. However, on 15 August 2021, the country was recaptured by the Taliban, which marked the end of the 2001–2021 war, the longest war in US history. This led to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, led by President Ashraf Ghani, and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate under the control of the Taliban. While the United Nations still recognizes the Islamic Republic as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, this toppled regime controls no portion of the country today, nor does it operate in exile. It effectively no longer exists. The Islamic Emirate is the de facto ruling government. The US–Taliban deal, signed on 29 February 2020 in Qatar, was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks and deprived the ANSF of a critical edge in fighting the Taliban insurgency, leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, also known as Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani, Khaleel Haqqani and Khalil Ahmad Haqqani, is the Afghan Minister of Refugees and a prominent leader of the Haqqani network.

The politics of Afghanistan are based on a totalitarian emirate within the Islamic theocracy in which the Taliban Movement holds a monopoly on power. Dissent is not permitted, and politics are mostly limited to internal Taliban policy debates and power struggles. As the government is provisional, there is no constitution or other basis for the rule of law. The structure is autocratic, with all power concentrated in the hands of the supreme leader and his clerical advisors.

References

  1. 1 2 Gallagher, Kimball. "Dr. Ahmad Sarmast on the Afghanistan National Institute of Music". Notes on the Road. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 Ross, Alex (March 4, 2013). "Border Crossings East meets West at Carnegie Hall". The New Yorker . Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Ryan, Rosanna (August 7, 2015). "Emma Ayres on her new adventure: teaching music in Afghanistan". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Coren, Anna (September 21, 2012). "Music school strikes chord with Afghan street kids". CNN . Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 Scherer, Barrymore Laurence (Feb 11, 2013). "Making Music Against the Odds". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Our History". Afghanistan National Institute of Music | ANIM. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  7. ↑ Rasmussen, Sune Engel (2015-05-25). "He was the saviour of Afghan music. Then a Taliban bomb took his hearing". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  8. 1 2 Haider, Arwa (December 6, 2018). "Ahmad Zahir: The enduring appeal of the Afghan Elvis". BBC - Culture. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  9. ↑ Khalil, Shaimaa (10 November 2015). "Afghanistan's first female conductor". BBC News. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  10. 1 2 Bezhan, Frud (August 9, 2015). "The Day Afghan Music Didn't Die". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty . Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  11. 1 2 Khalil, Shaimaa (November 10, 2015). "Afghanistan's first female conductor". BBC . Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  12. ↑ "Girls find their Place in Afghanistan's Music Institute". World Bank . Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  13. ↑ "Afghan woman defies odds to pursue her dream". Deutsche Welle . 6 August 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  14. ↑ "The Afghanistan National Institute of Music". Polar Music Prize. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  15. ↑ Talmazan, Yuliya (18 November 2021). "Afghanistan's only music school completes exit from Kabul fearing Taliban crackdown". NBC News . Retrieved 15 August 2023.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.