Congratulations to Ahmad Sarmast and Afghanistan National Institute of Music for winning the 2018 Polar Music Prize alongside the rock band Metallica. This award, presented by the King of Sweden and often nicknamed the “Nobel Prize for Music,” has previously gone to such recipients as Yo-Yo Ma, El Sistema, Renee Fleming, Led Zeppelin, B. B. King, Ravi Shankar, Elton John, and Paul McCartney.

Cultures in Harmony founder William Harvey lived and worked at ANIM nearly every day from 2010-2014, where he taught violin, viola, cello, and bass and conducted the orchestra for local audiences, eight times for President Karzai, on national television, and for sold-out audiences at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Cultures in Harmony helped sponsor and arrange residencies in Afghanistan by Allegra Boggess (September 2010), Joel Schut (June-July 2013), and Theodore Harvey (August 2013).

Dr. Sarmast brought music back to the only country to ban it nationwide for 5 years (1996-2001), and for that stunning achievement, he and ANIM are the most deserving recipients in the illustrious award’s quarter-century of existence.

Tashakor, Dr. sahib.