2023-09-11 06:34:12
The Geneva Chamber Orchestra welcomed the Afghan Youth Orchestra for a series of concerts, a group of young musicians who fled the Taliban regime. The Afghan team will perform once more this Monday at the UN during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council.
In August 2021, the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. To continue practicing their art, the young musicians of the Afghan Youth Orchestra have no other choice but to leave their family and their homeland to go into exile abroad. Some are just teenagers.
Director of the National Institute of Music in Kabul, Ahmad Sarmast fought for his students to find refuge in Portugal and be able to continue studying music. “Afghanistan is the only nation in the world that is silent. We play to protest the ban on music in our country, we protest for women’s rights and once morest oppression,” he explains to the RTS.
>> Also see, this report from “Temps present” which followed Ahmad Sarmast’s day-to-day fight to exfiltrate the musicians of the Zohra orchestra, the only 100% female musical ensemble in Afghanistan:
Mission impossible in Kabul: save the musicians! / Present time / 56 min. / February 10, 2022
Making traditional music heard
Today, this orchestra made up of around forty young people aged 14 to 20 travels across Europe to share the traditional music of Afghanistan. “I feel strong. I play in this orchestra for my community. In each country, we want to send the message that Afghans will not stop playing music,” says a young musician.
On September 6, 2023, the group performed alongside the Geneva Chamber Orchestra at the Victoria Hall in Geneva. On the program for this evening entitled “Music From a Silent Land”, pages of traditional Afghan music as well as Western works.
>> To see, a report a few hours before the concert:
The Afghan Youth Orchestra, a group of young musicians who fled the Taliban regime, in concert in Geneva / 7:30 p.m. / 2 min. / Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Beyond the silence
“It was a wonderful concert, reports on the 7:30 p.m. set of RTS Sevinch Majidi, 19 years old, violinist in the Afghan Youth Orchestra. There was a lot of emotion, we were happy to break the silence with the music. (…) It was very hard to leave our country, to leave our family and friends behind. We came here because we wanted to continue playing and keeping our music alive.”
The teenagers Farida and Zohra, violinist and trumpeter, say nothing else. Far from their families and despite the lack, they consider themselves lucky: “In Afghanistan we cannot study, go to school or work, especially if we are a woman. Here, we feel safe, we can play music and do what we want. People are free. We are a voice for all the people who can’t play music there.” Their dream? Pursue their career as a musician.
The Afghan formation will perform once more on September 11 at the UN in Geneva during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, during which the fate of Afghanistan will be at the forefront.
TV topic: Sarah Jelassi
Adaptation web: mh
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