Afghan Youth Orchestra and Renée Fleming Give Free, Livestreamed Concert From The Kennedy Center

This Thursday, August 8, American soprano Renée Fleming makes a special guest appearance with the Afghanistan Youth Orchestra (AYO) at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

In a free, livestreamed concert on the center's Millennium Stage, the five-time Grammy winner joins AYO – the premier ensemble of the displaced, co-educational Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) – for a performance of “You'll Never Walk Alone,” lending her voice to support the women and musicians of Afghanistan.

The concert follows last month's announcement that Last Song from Kabul, a Paramount+ documentary about ANIM's escape to Portugal, has been nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award. 

The Afghan Youth Orchestra comprises 45 male and female Afghan musicians aged between 14 and 22. Eleven years ago, when AYO made its U.S. debut with sold-out Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall performances and a residency at Boston's New England Conservatory, the Washington Post applauded the orchestra's “message of hope.” Now, playing on a combination of Western orchestral instruments and traditional Afghan ones, AYO returns to the Kennedy Center under the baton of young Portuguese conductor Tiago Moreira da Silva. In addition to the collaboration with Renée Fleming, the program will combine ancient ragas and folksongs with the conductor's original arrangements of music by Brahms, Kodály, and Afghan composers Amir Jan Saboori, Ustad Din Mohammad Zakhail, and Ustad Nainawaz, the father of Afghan pop. AYO will also give the DC premiere of Saudade do Afeganistão, a multi-movement work tracing ANIM's recent history by composer and former faculty member William Harvey, and ANIM's mold-breaking, all-female Zohra Orchestra will interpret songs celebrating freedom and women's rights. At a time when women in Afghanistan are prohibited from working, attending school, or leaving their homes unaccompanied, Zohra's performance sends a powerful message of resistance, embodying the unwavering spirit of Afghan women.

The Kennedy Center concert follows AYO's return to Carnegie Hall on August 7 for the final concert of World Orchestra Week (WOW!), a new festival that brings together seven youth orchestras from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States for a week of cultural exchange and music-making with internationally renowned artists in New York. AYO will be joined on Carnegie Hall's main stage by members of the European Union Youth Orchestra, and the program will be expanded to include accounts of traditional Sufi songs by ANIM's Qawwali vocal ensemble; further details are available here.

About Last Song from Kabul (2023)

Last Song from Kabul (2023) is scheduled to receive its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, before coming to Paramount+ later this fall. Directed by Ruhi Hamid and Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald, and produced by Peabody Award winner Sheila Nevins, the documentary short captures ANIM's escape to Portugal and its efforts to rebuild the students' lives as they start to play music again. Featured works include Zendagi Akher Sarayad, as performed by Zohra at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.
 
Last year, Last Song from Kabul was shortlisted for an Academy Award and nominated for the Critics' Choice Best Short Documentary award. Now it has also been chosen as one of five nominees for the News & Documentary Emmy Award for “Outstanding Short Documentary,” which will be presented live at New York's Palladium Times Square on September 26. Click here to preview Last Song from Kabul.
 
A second documentary – Symphony of Courage (2022), produced by Voice of America, follows Farida and Zohra Ahmadi, the last two ANIM students to be evacuated from their homeland after the Taliban takeover. Both girls perform as members of AYO on the upcoming U.S. tour, and Symphony of Courage may be streamed on demand here.

About Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM)

Since its founding in 2010 by Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, ANIM has been internationally recognized as “a great success story in the effort to renew cultural life and the arts in Afghanistan” (NPR). However, the Taliban's return to power in 2021 made it a crime to provide Afghan girls with a secondary education, to teach Afghan boys and girls side by side, and to perform or even listen to music in Afghanistan. As a result, the coeducational school and its students were forced to flee their homeland. They have now relocated to Portugal, where they are once again free to pursue their artistic dreams and help ensure the future of Afghanistan's rich but beleaguered musical heritage. After the ANIM students' traumatic experiences, AYO's current full international touring schedule represents a key step on the road to recovery.

Afghan Youth Orchestra & Zohra Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

Aug 7
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
World Orchestra Week (WOW!)
With Qawwali ensemble and members of the European Union Youth Orchestra
Conductor: Tiago Moreira da Silva
TRAD: Raga Pilo
TRAD: Raga Bhihag
Ustad SARAHANG: Tark-e Arezo Kardam (Qawwali)
TRAD: Peer Man o Murad Man (Qawwali)
TRAD, arr. Ahmad Zahir: Zendagi Akher Sarayad (Zohra Orchestra)
Ustad KHYAL: An Selsela Mo (Zohra Orchestra)
Amir JAN SABOORI, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Sar-zamen-e-man
Sediq SHABAB: Pa Bismillah
SHANKAR-JAIKISHAN: Mera Joota Hai Japani
Johannes BRAHMS, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: 21 Hungarian Dances, No. 5
William HARVEY: Saudade do Afeganistão (U.S. premiere)
Zoltán KODÁLY, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Intermezzo from Háry János
Nay NAWAZ, arr. Khaled Arman: Ay Nay Naway-e Jawedan
Ustad Din MOHAMMAD ZAKHAIL, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: An Afghan in New York
Michail THEODORAKIS, arr. Abdul Wahab Madadi: Watan Ishq-e-tu
  Tickets and further information are available here.

Afghan Youth Orchestra, Zohra Orchestra, & guest Renée Fleming
Free Kennedy Center concert, with livestream

Aug 8
Washington, D.C.
Kennedy Center (Millennium Stage)
Conductor: Tiago Moreira da Silva
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: “You'll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel (with Renée Fleming, soprano)
TRAD, arr. Ahmad Zahir: Zendagi Akher Sarayad (Zohra Orchestra)
Ustad KHYAL: An Selsela Mo (Zohra Orchestra)
Amir JAN SABOORI, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Sar-zamen-e-man
Sediq SHABAB: Pa Bismillah
SHANKAR-JAIKISHAN: Mera Joota Hai Japani
Johannes BRAHMS, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: 21 Hungarian Dances, No. 5
William HARVEY: Saudade do Afeganistão (D.C. premiere)
Zoltán KODÁLY, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Intermezzo from Háry János
Nay NAWAZ, arr. Khaled Arman: Ay Nay Naway-e Jawedan
Ustad Din MOHAMMAD ZAKHAIL, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: An Afghan in New York
Michail THEODORAKIS, arr. Abdul Wahab Madadi: Watan Ishq-e-tu

This concert will be livestreamed. Free tickets and further information are available here.

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