Composer, pianist, poet, and visual artist Milad Yousufi (b. 1995) was born in Afghanistan during the civil war and trained at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music before being awarded a full scholarship at the Mannes School of Music.
Featured by the BBC World Service and Lyse Doucet, composer and pianist Arson Fahim’s (b. 2000) music is infused with his compassion and a fierce commitment to social justice within his homeland of Afghanistan.
Qambar Nawshad (b. 1996) is a composer, arranger and percussionist, and conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Afghanistan, now in exile in Portugal where the Afghanistan National Institute of Music is currently being re-established.
Raised in AFCECO orphanages in Kabul, trumpet player, composer, and arranger Qudrat Wasefi (b. 1999) is fiercely committed to music as a form of resistance against repression.
Meena Karimi (b. 2006) is a cellist, composer, and women’s rights advocate from Afghanistan. She started her musical studies on cello and dilruba and is currently majoring in classical cello performance at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, U.S.A.
Ustad Zalai Pakta (b. 1978) is an award-winning master ney (Persian flute) player, composer and educator. He developed his musical expertise under Ustad Naseer Aziz and worked for 16 years as a musician for the Afghanistan’s National Radio and Television.
Elaha Soroor (b. 1989) is a London-based vocalist and composer originally from Afghanistan. One of the first female musicians to perform in public after the fall of the Taliban in 2000, Elaha rose to fame through the TV show Afghan Star in 2008.
Pianist, composer, arranger and academic, Ghafar Maliknezhad (b. 1987), holds an MA in Art Criticism from Kazakh National Academy of Arts and a BA in music and piano performance from Kabul University.
Mohsen Saifi (b. 1989) is an academic, guitarist, conductor and composer now based in Germany. He was a Lecturer at the Kabul University Music Department since 2012 until the abrupt closure of the department by the Taliban in August 2021.
Concert in Solidarity With Afghan Musicians, NEC Boston
Featuring arrangements of Afghan pop and folk music alongside works by Afghan composers, with every piece newly commissioned for this concert and receiving its world premiere.
