Zohra Ahmadi is a 15-year-old trumpet player from Afghanistan, where the Taliban — on top of limiting education for girls — has banned music altogether.
In 2021, Ahmadi moved with 300 members of the Afghan Youth Orchestra to Portugal, thousands of miles away from their families, to continue playing and learning.
The governments of Portugal and Qatar sponsored them.
“So, we are there and we play music, and we are the voice of people who don’t play music or can’t go to school,” she said. “And we want to show the Taliban that they cannot silence the music in Afghanistan.”
Ahmadi is one of 700 young instrumentalists from five continents who have gathered in New York City this week for Carnegie Hall’s World Orchestra Week.
Seven participating youth orchestras each have their own concert on the Carnegie stage. Musicians attend each other’s concerts as well as various workshops. World-renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who himself started out in Venezuela’s youth orchestra program El Sistema, led a session with all of the musicians together in one room.
In a separate workshop, participants shared their wishes for the world and wrote them on ribbons. Some of their wishes were projected on the walls at Carnegie Hall.
“So, my wish is for lalela,” said Gilah Kellner, the 20-year-old concertmaster of the new Africa United Youth Orchestra. “Lalela is Zulu for ‘listen,’ which implies the problems of the world start when people are not listening to one another, and there’s a lot of miscommunication and misunderstandings. A lot of wars began like that.”
Anna Zigmont, a 20-year-old Ukrainian violinist with the European Union Youth Orchestra, had a similar wish: “Obviously, it’s peace for all of us because it’s dangerous. And we need to be patient. And also, like, I think the music, it’s one kind of thing that we could all do together — musicians — and it could really change the world.”
Samuel Igbo, a violinist of Nigerian descent who is a high school senior in Texas and a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States, agreed: “It’s about seeing people from not only our point of view but allowing ourselves to be open to other points of view and unique points of view, allowing us to really be a part of each other.”
Sarah Johnson, who runs the Weill Music Institute, Carnegie Hall’s educational arm, said that it’s gratifying to witness the musicians’ “real joy in playing music. Yes, and getting to know each other has been moving and beautiful and hopeful,” she said.
WQXR broadcast all the WOW concerts and they’re available to stream.