Since opening its doors in spring of 2010, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) has been working to rebuild the social and cultural life of Afghanistan by providing a safe, tuition-free, and musically rich learning environment for the children of Kabul and its surrounding villages.

I traveled to Kabul last winter as a guest artist of ANIM’s Winter Academy. I led a small delegation of musicians from Boston’s New England Conservatory, where I am Assistant Chair of the Department of Contemporary Improvisation. Eden MacAdam-Somer, Larry Unger and I were struck by the vitality, enthusiasm, accomplishment and musical appetite of ANIM’s students. We were struck, too, by the dedication of ANIM’s Afghan and international faculty who work tirelessly towards their students’ future.

Music has been subject to extreme censorship in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban rule, singing and dancing were prohibited, musical instruments were confiscated and destroyed, and professional musicians were forced into silence or exile. The consequences of musical censorship for the Afghan people, culture and heritage have been profound and far-reaching. Much progress has been made since the Taliban were deposed in 2001, but Afghanistan faces many challenges as it rebuilds a shattered political, economic and social infrastructure.

Under the direction of founder Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music provides a safe, tuition-free learning environment for students regardless of gender, ethnicity or social class. Half of the school’s students are drawn from Afghanistan’s population of orphans and child laborers: these students receive both academic and musical training. The families of child labourers receive a monthly stipend roughly equal to the child’s monthly earnings. Just $30 keeps a child in school, instead of working on the streets.

One of the goals of my visits to ANIM is to foster a culture of international engagement at my school, and to carve a pathway for my extended community of students and colleagues to engage in this type of work, at ANIM and beyond.

- Tanya Kalmanovitch, July 9 2011