Ahmad Naser Sarmast
Ahmad Naser Sarmast | |
---|---|
Residence | Kabul, Afghanistan |
Nationality | Afghan, Australian |
Education |
Monash University Moscow State Conservatory |
Occupation | Ethnomusicologist |
Parent(s) | Ustad Salim Sarmast |
Awards |
International Music Council Musical Rights Award Radio Azadi Person of the Year (2013) David Chow Humanitarian Award Government of Afghanistan Education Award |
Website |
www |
Ahmad Naser Sarmast is an Afghan-Australian ethnomusicologist. He is the founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.
Early life and education
As his father, Ustad Salim Sarmast, was a famous musician, composer and conductor in Afghanistan, Ahmad Sarmast grew up exposed to a wide variety of musical influences.[1][2][3]
Sarmast graduated from an Afghan music school in 1981.[4] He later left Afghanistan in the 1990s due to the ongoing Afghan civil war.[1][2] Sarmast earned a Master’s degree in musicology in 1993 from Moscow State Conservatory.[1][2] He was given asylum in Australia in 1994.[1] In 2005, Sarmast became the first Afghan to earn a PhD in music, earning his PhD from Monash University.[1][5][6]
Founding the Afghan National Institute of Music
Sarmast returned to Afghanistan to help revive music in his native country after the defeat of the Taliban.[1][7][3][8] Under the invitation of the Afghan Ministry of Education, Sarmast returned with a plan to restore Afghan music traditions that had been suppressed under years of Taliban rule.[4][3][9] In 2006, Sarmast had outlined his proposal in the Revival of Afghan Music (ROAM), wanting to open a dedicated music school with a curriculum combining both Afghan and Western music.[3][9] Sarmast returned to Afghanistan in 2008.[2] He formally opened the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul on June 20, 2010.[3]
Sarmast originally planned to offer music education exclusively to underprivileged children, orphans and street kids.[3][6] The Afghan Ministry of Education wanted him to open the school to talented students, so in the end an agreement was reached for a fifty-fifty split.[3] The underprivileged children at ANIM receive a stipend of $30 per month to allow them to focus on school.[3]
Sarmast also placed great importance on offering a co-educational learning environment, a rare situation in Afghanistan,[10] listing that as his greatest achievement at the school.[11]
In 2013, ANIM's Afghan Youth Orchestra toured the United States, including performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.[9][6] In 2015, the first Afghan female conductor, Negin Khpolwak, held her first concert with an all-female ensemble.[12]
Victim of Taliban attack
Sarmast was injured in a suicide attack by the Taliban on the Centre d'Enseignement Français en Afghanistan on Dec 11, 2014.[2][8] Following the attack, the Taliban released a statement accusing Sarmast of corrupting the youth of Afghanistan.[2][8]
Immediately after the attack, Sarmast lost consciousness and lost hearing in both ears, as both of his eardrums were perforated, resulting in him becoming completely deaf.[2][8] He was rushed to a hospital in Kabul for emergency surgery.[8] Later, he returned to Australia, where surgeons removed eleven pieces of shrapnel from the back of his head, restoring partial hearing to one of his ears.[2][8] Sarmast stills suffers from PTSD as a result of the attack.[2]
Further information
Sarmast spends time annotating Afghan music in Western notation to help record a mostly oral Afghan music tradition.[2] He also hopes to rearrange Afghan music in the Western Classical tradition.[6]
Sarmast has plans to build a concert hall and girl's dormitory at the current institute.[2] Sarmast is also hoping to build music schools in other cities in Afghanistan, primarily Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Herat.[3][4] He also dreams of eventually setting up a Symphony Orchestra of Afghanistan.[6]
Sarmast was the subject of a 2012 documentary, Dr. Sarmast’s Music School, directed by Polly Watkins and Beth Frey.[7][13]
Works
- A Survey of the History of Music in Afghanistan: Special Reference to Art Music from c. 1000 A.D. VDM Verlag. 2009. ISBN 978-3639131505.
References
Bibliography
- "Dr Sarmast's Music School". Al Jazeera. Jan 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- "Music making comeback in Afghanistan". Arab News. January 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- "Ahmad Sarmast, the man who revived music in Afghanistan". China Central Television. Jun 2, 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Coren, Anna (September 21, 2012). "Music school strikes chord with Afghan street kids". CNN. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Crouch, Graham (January 17, 2013). "Afghan Music Students Take Their Show on the Road". World Bank. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Bezhan, Frud (August 9, 2015). "The Day Afghan Music Didn't Die". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Gallagher, Kimball. "Dr. Ahmad Sarmast on the Afghanistan National Institute of Music". Notes on the Road. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Khalil, Shaimaa (November 10, 2015). "Afghanistan's first female conductor". BBC. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Nakano, Wataru (June 15, 2012). "After the Taliban: Afghanistan reclaiming its musical heritage". Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Rasmussen, Sune Engel (May 25, 2015). "He was the saviour of Afghan music. Then a Taliban bomb took his hearing". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Ross, Alex (March 4, 2013). "Border Crossings East meets West at Carnegie Hall.". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Ryan, Rosanna (August 7, 2015). "Emma Ayres on her new adventure: teaching music in Afghanistan". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Rubin, Alissa J.; Wakin, Daniel J. (Feb 1, 2013). "How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? Start in Kabul". Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- Scherer, Barrymore Laurence (Feb 11, 2013). "Making Music Against the Odds". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 November 2015.