Wow what a rollercoaster of a day! I spent the morning at Bergdorf Goodman on 5th Avenue. It is a five storey department store which houses separate salons for each of the world’s great designers/brands. The sales staff work on commission and obviously have to ensure they are dressed and groomed immaculately at all times. Apparently you have to look a million dollars in order to earn their attention. Unfortunately, since I had come straight from the gym, I didn’t look like I was worth a million dollars … so no one spoke to me or even looked at me. And when, at last, I finally summoned up the courage to touch the clothes, I had to lean on the rack to steady myself and check the prices again. Needless to say I looked for the sale rack and found a small one on the 5th floor that had clothes in sizes 0 – 8 with 75% off – a Stella McCartney blouse going for a song (pardon the musical allusion … I just could not help myself) at $675 after having been marked down from $2,500 or a Prada coat for ‘just’ $4,500. I was so in the wrong store … but there were lots of other people there who were buying up big and most of them were speaking Russian! Not to mention the two trannies in the Prada salon, both of whom seemed to be having a great time, but not me, I was out of there! Seriously does anyone really need to spend that much money on clothes? Surely there is only so much one person needs – or does it come down to wants as in wanting to impress the next person?
But if my morning had proved to be depressingly disappointing, the evening was extraordinary. Thanks to Sue Sauer and her great advice on the things in life that one should actually pay attention to, we had been alerted us to the fact that Dr Ahmad Sarmast, Afghanistan’s first PhD in Music (which incidentally he acquired at Monash University in Melbourne) was bringing a group of students from his Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul to perform at Carnegie Hall. If you have time, their full story can be found at the link below, it is amazing. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2013/01/201311412401920574.html
There are 9.5 million school children in Afghanistan and 40% of them are girls. This institution and its orchestra is made up of students from a variety of backgrounds with a focus on the ‘economically disadvantaged, orphans, girls and street children’. During the civil war from 1992 – 2001, the school closed and when it re-opened in 2001 it faced several significant limitations, like no practice rooms, no teachers and no instruments! In 2008 Dr Sarmast returned to his country of birth to bring to life his ROAM (Revival of Afghani Music) Project. With generous donations and support from the US and Afghani Governments and many individuals and institutions around the world, including the World Bank, the Afghanistan Institute of Music has flourished and is now active in areas other than music including sport and students with disabilities.
The sixty Afghani students and teachers, who are being hosted on this trip by, and who performed with, the music and orchestral students of Scarsdale High School in Boston, introduced us to a broad range of Afghan instruments (the Rubab, Sitar, Sarod, Ghichak, Dilruba, Tanbur, Tabla and Flute) as well as eleven traditional Western instruments. They played a number of well-known orchestral pieces by Chopin, Vivaldi and Ravel as well as several Indo-Afghan traditional tunes and two stirring Afghan folksongs. It was a magical night, the climax of which was an encore performance of Shakoko jan, a popular Afghan folk song, in which each of the Afghani children performed a solo or duet highlight their mastery of the instrument to which they had been assigned. The moment and the atmosphere was unforgettable.
To add icing to the cake, during the intermission, Peter and I met Mr Asif Nang, the Deputy Minister of Education from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He had earlier delivered a message from his government expressing their delight that, after four decades of war and conflict, these children and their music had been given an opportunity to spread a message of co-operation and peace throughout the world, from a country that has known far too little of either. When he learned that we were Australian he became very excited and told us that, earlier that day, he had received an official invitation for the ANIM to perform in Sydney. I asked him if he was interested in setting up anything in Perth and he said he was open to further discussions. What a wonderful opportunity has been opened to forge educational links with this country. I accepted his business card with a million ideas running through my head.
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