Together with @hfm_weimar_international, the Chair of Transcultural Music Studies presented Afghan musical heritage in the Saal am Palais on 19 Nov. 2022. To kick off the new series "Transcultural Music Sessions", Fazila Zamer and Ustad Latif Sharifi gave a concert on traditional Afghan instruments (rubab, dhol and tula). Afterwards, there was a lively discussion about Afghan musical culture, moderated by Mitra Behpoori. The lives of musicians in exile and in Afghanistan were discussed, as well as current prohibitions and possibilities. A central topic was the flight from Afghanistan and the difficulties associated with it, such as taking the instrument with them. In addition, Fazila Zamer reported on her experience as an Afghan music teacher in Kabul and spoke about musical teaching formats. The stories gave the audience an impression of the seriousness of the situation of musicians in Afghanistan, who are marginalised by their own government.

At the Long Night of Science 2022 at the FRANZ LISZT School of Music, the two Afghan musicians Fazila Zamer and Ustad Latif Sharifi gave an insight into Afghan sound worlds. The guests were also able to learn more about the German-Afghan research project of the same name in the "Safar" exhibition.

At this year's Rudolstadt Festival, visitors had the pleasure of listening to master musicians from Kabul. Organised and moderated by Prof. Dr. Tiago de Oliveira Pinto.
In continuation of the long-standing cooperation with the musicians of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), the Chair of Transcultutsal Music Studies invited the master musicians for a concert in the beautiful Stadtkirche in Rudolstadt.

In order to continue our long-standing cooperation with musicians from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), we again invited master musicians to give workshops and concerts at our college. Unfortunately, the events had to be cancelled due to the Corona pandemic. Nevertheless, we want to catch up on the cooperation as soon as it will be possible again. To enjoy the time until then musically, you can listen to our concerts of the last years in the media library.

The Cooperation with RTA for preservation and digitisation of the culturally invaluable RTA music archive constitutes one of the main pillars of the AMRC. The AMRC facilitates the digitisation and metadata tagging of the RTA Music Archive content and its online accessibility via the DISMARC-platform for scientific and research purposes. Following the first workshop in Berlin in 2016, the project has reached the next phase. As a part of the cooperation, a four-day training has been delivered to RTA employees by the AMRC and its technical partner, AIT, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from the 16th to 20th December 2018. During the training, extensive discussions have been conducted, desirable outcomes have been obtained and the need for continuing the cooperation was emphasised. The objectives of the training include the optimisation of the processes of digitisation, cataloguing and online accessibility of the RTA Archive metadata. Through the DISMARC-platform, the metadata are made visible and accessible worldwide giving insights into the Afghan musical culture to researchers and scientists. The preservation and digitisation of the archive plays a monumental role in the revitalization of this unique and diverse musical culture and its transfer to future generations. 

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An important pillar of the AMRC is the preservation of the culturally extremely valuable music archive of Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) in Kabul. For this purpose, the AMRC supports the RTA partners in digitising and recording the metadata of the music archive's records, which will subsequently be made accessible for research and scholarship on the DISMARC platform. After a first workshop took place in Berlin in 2016, the project entered the next phase in 2018. As a milestone in securing the archive, the AMRC hosted a four-day training with the partners of the RTA, the technical partner AIT and the AMRC staff from 16-20 December 2018 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. During the training, intensive discussions took place, significant progress was made and the need for a continuation of the cooperation became clear. The training focused on the optimisation of the digitisation processes and the capture and online availability of the metadata of the RTA Music Archive. With the help of the DISMARC platform, the metadata are accessible worldwide and allow researchers and scholars unimagined insights into the heyday of Afghan music. The preservation and digitisation of the music archive also represents a milestone in the revitalisation of this unique and diverse musical culture and its transmission to future generations.

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Publication: "Music in Afghanistan. Tradition and Transformation"

in English and Dari

There are few publications on Afghan music research coming from Afghanistan itself. This book is an exception, since its contents are not only the result of an international symposium that took place at Kabul University, Kabul/ Afghanistan, in November 2014, but several of its contributions have been written by Afghan music scholars and musicology students, together with articles written by authors from Germany, Austria, and Turkey.

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Together with its partners Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) and Angewandte Informationsstechnik Forschungsgesellschaft mbh (AIT), the AMRC is realizing a four-day workshop on digital archival work in Berlin from 13 to 17 December 2016. In order to continue and improve the creation of a digital catalogue at the radio archive of RTA in Kabul, the General Director, the TV Director as well as employees of the radio archive of RTA are visiting Berlin for expert workshops, the German Broadcast Archive, the Lautarchiv and the archive of the RBB (Radio Berlin Brandenburg).

The cooperation between the AMRC and Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) intends to open up and make accessible the extensive and culturally valuable collection of RTAs collection from the heyday of Afghan music for science and research. For this purpose, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar and RTA this year. With the expertise of AIT, a digital catalogue is created and the metadata will be made visible worldwide through DISMARC database.