ANIM’s triumphant US return is “a message of resilience, resistance, to the people of Afghanistan and the youth of Afghanistan.”

ANIM’s Triumphant US Return

This summer, the Afghan Youth Orchestra (AYO) returned to the States for the first time since its historic U.S. debut in 2013. The premier ensemble of the displaced Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), the orchestra comprises 46 male and female musicians aged between 14 and 22, whose diverse backgrounds testify to the strength and resilience of the Afghan people. Together with ANIM’s celebrated all-female Zohra Orchestra and conductor Tiago Moreira da Silva, AYO performed traditional Afghan and Western classical music, on both Afghan and Western instruments, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, as the final concert of the inaugural World Orchestra Week (Aug 7), and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (Aug 8). Marking the ensembles’ first U.S. appearances since the Taliban’s return to power and ANIM’s subsequent flight to safety in Portugal, these performances represented potent acts of defiance against the regime that has not only outlawed music but also imposed gender apartheid in Afghanistan. 

ANIM’s US return has been championed across a wide range of media outlets, with appearances on MSNBC, NPR’s All Things Considered, CNN Amanpour, NBC and more. ANIM is featured in The New York Times profile of World Orchestra Week at Carnegie Hall and has received rave reviews for their US performances.

Watch AYO’s performance at the Kennedy Center below.

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