The musical heritage of Afghanistan is finding new voices with the help of an ambitious global social development initiative.
One of the largest Afghan populations outside Afghanistan is located in Fremont, California.
“If you visit Fremont, you would never think that you were in America,” says Fairouz Nishanova, the director of the Aga Khan Music Initiative. “It’s a Pashtun environment, and its language, clothing, architecture, everything, has been imported from Kabul.” It shouldn’t be too surprising, then, to hear that it is also the home of one of the leading exponents of the rubab, a variety of fretted lute that sits at the heart of Afghan folk and classical traditions.
Ismailimail 