Taliban tried to silence musicians. Now some are playing at Carnegie Hall. – NBC News

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NEW YORK — The Taliban tried to silence them, at times violently.
The musicians from the Afghan Youth Orchestra have defiantly played on, and on Wednesday they took to one of the world’s most prestigious stages: Carnegie Hall.
Their journey to perform at the famed New York City concert venue has been long, painful and fraught with danger. 
After the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan in August 2021, many of the musicians believed they’d never play their instruments again. According to the group’s hard-line and austere interpretation of Islam, women should remain covered outside the home. Most forms music are strictly forbidden. 
That’s what made Wednesday’s Carnegie Hall concert such a triumph, Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), told NBC News in a series of interviews, the last in late July.
It’s a “message of resilience, resistance, to the people of Afghanistan and the youth of Afghanistan,” he said. “In spite of all the challenges and the difficulties that they are going through and what they experienced in the last three years, they are still strong.”
Minutes before the concert began, the young performers gathered in a room steps from the historic stage. Nerves and excitement filled the air as the students of music practiced playing their instruments: guitars, violins, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, saxophones and traditional Afghan instruments, such as the lute-like sitar and rubab, and the tabla, or hand-played drums.
Amanullah Noori, a 19-year-old violinist and the concertmaster for the evening, said he feels proud to play in Carnegie Hall and represent his country, where many, including women and musicians, cannot live freely.
“One day I might help them and bring my music and the beauty of Afghan music back to Afghanistan,” Noori said. 
Cello players Zinat Hanif, 16, and Mary Khpalwak, 19, were excited to perform on the iconic stage and hope it can help them preserve Afghan music. 
“Of course we miss Afghanistan, but we are here to protect our music, to not silence Afghan music,” Hanif said. “That’s why we are here.”
ANIM, which the youth orchestra is part of, has long stood as a resounding symbol of resilience and resistance since it was established in 2010. Born under the fragile security of a United States-backed Afghan government in Kabul, it was the country’s first and only school of its kind. Boys and girls shared classrooms, Afghan culture and Western music were embraced, and children from all walks of life were welcomed.
For a decade, orchestras and ensembles from the institute toured the world, playing to packed venues.  
With the success came unwanted attention from the Taliban, which treated ANIM as a threat and an affront to their religious beliefs. The militant group regularly targeted the school, including a deadly suicide bombing at a performance in 2014. The attack killed one person and severely injured Sarmast, who was forced to spend three months recuperating.
So when the Taliban stormed back into power following the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and the collapse of the Afghan army, many of those associated with the school feared for their lives. 
“It was a shocking moment that you realize that Afghanistan is finished,” trumpeter Zohra Ahmadi, 15, said. “It was like we were dead.”  
Sarmast said he knew he had to quickly get help to evacuate the school’s staff and students who he believed would be targeted. So he sent off appeals to government officials in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Portugal.
“Portugal was the only government around the world that positively and promptly responded,” he said. “And offered a group asylum for 284 people … the entire school community.”
Today, the school has reestablished in Braga, a small city in northern Portugal. And, once again, they’re touring the world — now, as an orchestra in exile. While the youth orchestra once counted over 100 members, both boys and girls, it now has just over 50 players. 
Wednesday’s concert at Carnegie Hall marked the institute’s first performance in the United States in more than a decade. The audience erupted in applause for the performers as they entered the jam-packed hall and headed toward the stage.
The concert was split into two parts, with the first showcasing traditional Afghan and Sufi music, or Qawwali. In this half, musicians adorned in traditional dress, including the Gand E Afghani and shalwar kameez, sat on the floor, bringing their music to life with traditional instruments, including the harmonium, and in some cases, singing. 
Symphonies of Afghanistan echoed throughout the crevices of one of music’s most important venues. Audience members looked on, some swaying their heads along with the familiar melodies.
Hanifa Gerwal, who is Afghan herself, came to New York from Washington, D.C., to watch the young orchestra perform. Their performance made her feel emotional and proud, Gerwal said.
“It’s so good to see that they didn’t give up and they are trying to continue their resilience through the art, and they are trying to be a voice for the struggle of Afghan people throughout the country,”Gerwal said.
The second part of the concert was dedicated to Afghan orchestral music, and included a performance from Zohra, ANIM’s all-women orchestra.
In this section, Western and traditional Afghan instruments came together to produce a medley including Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms and Sarzamin E Man by Amir Jan Saboori.
The end of the concert was marked by two Afghan dancers carrying the Afghan flag. The dancers moved around the stage to Awalmir’s Maste Mange Bar.
Sarmast delivered remarks at the end of the show, highlighting that he was last in Carnegie Hall with ANIM in 2013, before the Taliban seized control.
“But this time, I’m standing here in front of you with a different mission and a different message,” he said. “My first mission as an Afghan is to tell you that this beautiful music is no longer playing in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a silent country.”
Sarmast also drew attention to the infringement on women and girls’ rights at the hands of the Taliban, in what he called a “gender apartheid” in Afghanistan.
But Sarmast has hope that “Afghanistan will be free.”
“Afghanistan is forced into silence,” he said. “But today, together with you, we broke that silence.”
Mirna Alsharif reported from New York, and Marc Smith from Braga, Portugal.
Mirna Alsharif is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
Marc Smith is a foreign producer for NBC News, based in London.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC

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