Classical Music magazine article on the new Kabul conservatory (1 of 2)

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A s far as national institutes of music go, Kabul 9s is almost ordinary. It offers an outdoor concert stage; students receive an hour 9s instru- ment lesson each week; and keen pupils tarry after orchestra for ear training in triads and intervals. But that outside stage was donated the British government; the cello teacher drilling the inverted triads once toured with the rock band Jethro Tull (and is the drst to teach her instrument in the country 9s history); and fully half its places are reserved for war orphans and children toiling on the street.

For a conservatory, it 9s got points of uniqueness. The institute is in its drst year: its of dcial opening was on 20 June, though some teaching took place in the months before. Its founder, Ahmad Sarmast, is the drst Afghan with a doctorate in music.

His late father, Salim Sar- mast, had been known as a composer, teacher at Kabul 9s Musical High School and conductor of King Zahir Shah 9s orchestra. When the son in 1993 completed his master 9s as a scholarship student in Moscow 9s Tchaikovsky Conserva- tory, warlord Shah Massoud ruled a Kabul which Gulbuddin Hekmatyar shelled; one year later the ... more. less.

Taliban would begin their rise, with a penal code which prohibited 8any equipment that produces the joy of music 9. Kabul 9s music school ceased to operate in 1992, after 19 years 3 its last few as a depart- ment in a merged School of Fine Arts. In ensu- ing years, Taliban used the school 9s pianos for kindling, exploding them drst with grenades; concert drums escaped more benevolently as planters. The Taliban changed the name of the national radio station to Radio Shariat, and it ceased to transmit music. When the regime fell in 2001, the School of Fine Arts reopened, but lacking instruments or music teachers. But then came 2006. Says Paul Cheater, sen- ior master of music at Oxford 9s Summer Fields School, 8Goodness knows what made me put cmusic in Afghanistan d into Google 9. But after stumbling on Dr Sarmast 9s Revival of Afghan 50 classicalmusicmagazine.org / 20 november 2010 risen f a 9 8 th 5 The Kabul National Institute of Music is short of many things, not least instruments and teachers. Optimism, however, is in plentiful supply, as Pádraig Belton discovers CM-W-20 November_FEATURE - Afgan.indd 50 12/11/2010 09:13:29

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