In August 2021, when the Taliban once again seized power in Afghanistan, the entire Afghan Youth Orchestra managed to flee to Europe. For the past four years, the young musicians of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) have found a new home in Portugal and are now guests at the Young Euro Classic Festival in Berlin.

"Making instruments and playing music is completely forbidden in Afghanistan," said Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of ANIM.

He said he was able to help 273 people associated with his music school flee Afghanistan. His Kabul school was then closed and the instruments were destroyed.

"Listening to and playing music is a human right. The people of Afghanistan are denied this right," Sarmast told DW. "This has turned my country into a 'silent nation'."

Young Euro Classic wants to preserve musical traditions

But Afghan music lives on in exile, including at the Young Euro Classic. Hundreds of young musicians from all over the world perform at the annual international youth orchestra festival, with European and non-European orchestras and ensembles alike invited to participate.

"The core of the festival remains symphonic music and how differently countries deal with this tradition of classical music," said project manager, Carolin Trispel.

Meanhile in the still young "Festival within a Festival” series, ensembles primarily perform music from their home countries and play traditional instruments from their cultures.

"We are also interested in preserving musical traditions for the future and providing a platform for their further development," said Trispel.

This year, in addition to Afghan musicians, ensembles from Bolivia, Indonesia, India, Gambia, and the indigenous Sami people of northern Scandinavia will also be participating.

Forbidden music finds new voice

Some of these ensembles play traditional music that was banned in their respective homelands. This includes the singing of the Sami people, known as "joik."

This spiritual-sounding chant was prohibited from the 18th to the 20th century as it was seen as an expression of a non-Christian religion.

"You often see this with indigenous peoples, that their own musical language was suppressed by colonization and the musical tradition was no longer allowed to be practiced," Trispel explained.

The Bolivian ensemble, Dos pares de la Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos plays old tunes from the Andes as well as new pieces composed especially for their traditional instruments.

Meanwhile, the Azada Ensemble is an Afghan group within the youth orchestra that performs traditional music and dances. Their performances highlight the connection between humans and nature, as well as the beauty of the country and its music.

Protesting Taliban social policy

The Afghan Youth Orchestra was a guest in Bonn in 2023 as part of the DW Campus project at the Beethovenfest, along with Iranian musicians.

"When we came to Bonn, the whole orchestra was not there, only part of it," said the orchestra's founder, Ahmad Sarmast.

In Berlin, the entire orchestra's 51 members are now performing in the Young Euro Classic, and they will put on the final concert.

"Every piece we play is in some way connected to the current situation in Afghanistan and the policies of the Taliban," said Sarmast.

The songs performed by the Afghan Youth Orchestra deal with themes like social cohesion.

"One song is a call to Afghan men to support oppressed women in their struggle for freedom and equality,” explains Sarmast.

One well-known traditional piece is closely associated with celebrating the New Year in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have banned both the festival and the music — and destroyed countless musical instruments.

"This has been celebrated in Afghanistan for thousands of years," explained Sarmast. "Playing this piece is a protest against the Taliban's destruction of cultural tradition in Afghanistan."

'Hope lives on'

The last of the concert songs, which were arranged by Tiago Moreira da Silva, a young Portuguese conductor and director of the orchestra, is based on a well-known Persian poem about the return of spring — and the return of peace.

Ahmad Sarmast quotes the Chilean poet and freedom fighter Pablo Neruda: "You can cut down the flowers and trees, but spring will always return, and you cannot stop freedom."

The orchestra keeps in touch with its homeland via social media, and also by streaming their concerts.

"Hope lives on," said Sarmast, who believes the day will come when the arts can flourish again in Afghanistan.

"We want the Taliban to know that no oppressive regime in human history has ever managed to stay in power. And that will also be the case with the Taliban."

This article was originally written in German.