The Afghanistan National Institute of Music was a thriving school in Kabul. But the last time the Taliban was in control of the country, all music related activities were strictly forbidden.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Over the past two decades, there's been an effort to renew cultural institutions and the arts in Afghanistan. One of these success stories has been the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul. It's a place where boys and girls study music and academics in the same classrooms. Ensembles from the school have performed around the world, including at Carnegie Hall. And now that school is closed. Its future is uncertain, as NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: The Afghanistan National Institute of Music, or ANIM, has been celebrated around the world for returning music to the country.

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BLAIR: Founded by musicologist Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, donors to the school include the World Bank and the U.S. and German governments. The British Royal Air Force airlifted musical instruments to the school when it first opened. When the ANIM orchestra performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 2013, CIA Director William Burns, who was then the U.S. deputy secretary of state, introduced them.

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WILLIAM BURNS: Afghanistan's rich musical traditions were once silenced by war and Taliban rule. But when democracy returned to Afghanistan, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast saw a chance to bring that tradition back to his country, founding what is today Afghanistan's sole music academy.

BLAIR: The musicians were students from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and the Maryland Youth Orchestra, playing both traditional Afghan and Western instruments.

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BLAIR: When the Taliban took over in 1996, music was banned. Musicians were reportedly threatened, kidnapped or killed. This week with the return of the Taliban and Kabul in transition, the school is closed. Sarmast says some students did not bring their instruments home.

AHMAD SARMAST: They returned the musical instrument to us back to the school because of the fear that if Taliban will be searching door to door. If the instruments will be found in the house, it might cause them some trouble.

BLAIR: Sarmast spoke to me from Australia, where he's visiting family. He says he is in constant contact with the school's faculty. Recently, there was a break-in, and instruments were destroyed. Sarmast contacted a policeman in the area.

SARMAST: He blamed our security people for failure that they opened the gates of the school. They were not supposed to open it.

BLAIR: It's unclear what the Taliban will do now. They've presented themselves to the media as less violent than they were in the 1990s. But Sarmast is skeptical.

SARMAST: Today the Taliban are promising that they will be respecting human rights, and they will be having respect for diversity. But the video footage that's emerging on the social media is not very encouraging.

BLAIR: He is concerned about the future of the school's students. He says 10 of its graduates have received scholarships to study music in the U.S., including pianist Elham Fanous.

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BLAIR: Fanous attended Hunter College in New York and recently got his master's from the Manhattan School of Music. He's worried for the safety of everyone involved with ANIM and hopes Afghans continue making music.

ELHAM FANOUS: Culture makes the country and give the country the strength that it needs to have and to represent the country. I think without cultural activities, the country is completely incomplete.

BLAIR: Dr. Ahmad Sarmast says he plans to re-open the Afghanistan National Institute of Music because, he says, the country needs it. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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