Ahmad Sarmast
Founder and Director
Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM)
About Ahmad Sarmast
Dr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast is an internationally recognized music educator, ethnomusicologist, and the founder of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). A trumpet player and the son of renowned Afghan composer Ustad Mohammad Salim Sarmast, he fled Afghanistan in the 1990s during the civil war and Taliban regime, when music was banned.
In 2008, Dr. Sarmast returned to Kabul to establish ANIM, Afghanistan’s first co-educational music school, offering training in both Afghan and Western classical music. The school was inaugurated in 2010. The institute prioritizes access for marginalized youth, including orphans, street-working children, and girls. ANIM’s ensembles, including the acclaimed Afghan Youth Orchestra and all-female Zohra Orchestra, have toured internationally, representing a hopeful future for Afghanistan.
After the Taliban regained control in 2021, Dr. Sarmast led the historic evacuation and resettlement of ANIM’s 273-member community to Portugal, one of the most significant cultural evacuations in recent history.
Dr. Sarmast and ANIM have received numerous international honours, including the Polar Music Prize, Royal Philharmonic Society Honorary Membership, and awards from the Asia Society, International Music Council, and the Government of Afghanistan. His work has been widely featured in global media and documentaries.
An accomplished scholar, Dr. Sarmast earned his PhD in Music from Monash University and degrees in performance and ethnomusicology from the Moscow State Conservatory.
He is the author of the landmark book “A Survey of the History of Music in Afghanistan” and scholarly articles including “The naghma-ye chartuk of Afghanistan: A New Perspective on the Origin of a Solo Instrumental Genre”.
Dr. Sarmast holds dual Afghan-Australian nationality and lives in Melbourne with his family.
Events with Dr. Ahmad Sarmast
Music in Exile: the Struggle to Preserve Culture
Dr. Ahmad Sarmast is the visionary Founder and Director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), established in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. ANIM was...
Music Education – Preserving Culture, Preventing Erasure
Music is a connecting thread that runs through cultures, extending from the very origins of identity to today’s contemporary expressions. The central role of music makes it an essential part...
Afghanistan National Institute of Music: The Inextinguishable Flame
Soon after the Taliban’s initial withdrawal in 2001, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast founded the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul, and against all odds, a global phenomenon was born....