NEC Faculty Responds to Afghan Bombings

At the request of President Tony Woodcock, Eden MacAdam-Somer, Assistant Chair of Contemporary Improvisation, has written a heart-felt response to the recent wave of bombings in Afghanistan. Eden, along with several NEC faculty, students, and alumni, has taught at and become a strong supporter of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, which seeks to reestablish music education and performance in a country where they were banned by the Taliban. Of particular concern for all music lovers was the injury of ANIM founder Dr. Ahmad Sarmast in a recent bombing and its implication for the people and culture of Afghanistan. Eden records her thoughts below.

On Thursday December 11, a bomb was detonated at the French Cultural Center at Esteqlal High School in Kabul, Afghanistan. The bomb went off during a production of Heartbeat: Silence After the Explosion, a play condemning suicide attacks. This incident touches especially close to home because many of the students playing music in the production are our personal friends - young artists at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.

NEC and ANIM have been linked since the Institute opened its doors in 2010, with NEC alumna Robin Ryczek as its first cello teacher. Since then, many other NEC faculty and alumni have taught at the ANIM, some, like Derek Beckvold and Bob Jordan, as resident faculty, others, including Tanya Kalmanovitch, Eric Lane, Danilo Henriquez, and me as guest artists. In February of 2013, ANIM students visited NEC for a three-day residency during their first US tour, with students and teachers from both schools taking turns sharing our different musical cultures, performing together and strengthening enduring friendships.

Thankfully, no ANIM students were physically injured during this recent attack. But the horrors that they witnessed are far beyond what anyone, let alone children, should have to cope with. Unfortunately, they are forced to encounter these horrors on a regular basis. Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, Founder and Director of the ANIM, received a head wound and is in the hospital. We are all praying for his speedy recovery. His determination to continue fighting for music in Afghanistan is stronger than ever.

Our hearts go out to all of our dear friends at the ANIM, and to all those in Afghanistan who are enduring these horrible attacks.

NEC students come from all over the world. Unfortunately, many of us are watching violence unfold in our homelands every day: Syria, Iran, China, Ukraine, Venezuela, Colombia, not to mention right here in our own back yard, in Staten Island, in Ferguson, Missouri…

As we watch the news, as we attend rallies and march in protests, we are taught to think of these incidents as categorical: terrorism attack; racially-based; politically-charged. We often assign ourselves roles: “I’m not Afghan, I’m not Black, I’m not Chinese, but I will stand up in support of my friends.” The truth is that violence anywhere impacts us all – I’m standing up for myself just as much as I am for anyone else.

I don’t want violence in my back yard. Not here, not in Kabul, not in New York. I don’t want it down at the end of the street, or in the park, or in the neighborhood next to mine. These are our concerns. This is our world. This is where we live. We need to keep violence out of our homes.

As artists, we are in an ideal position to speak out for social change. We work with audiences; we reach beyond linguistic boundaries; we are able to transcend the physical, tactile world. Our work needs to begin right here, through every single one of us reaching out to our local communities and welcoming our neighbors in. By pushing ourselves to look beyond individual concerts and performances to long-term commitments towards social change, like Kim Kashkashian’s Music for Food series, our Community Performances and Partnerships programs, our El Sistema Fellows.

How can we each help NEC become a more welcoming center for the arts for Boston’s entire community? How can we carry that communal support out into the world? If we don’t ask these questions of ourselves and, even more importantly, take action, we are allowing the opportunity for change to slip right through our hands.

Just before I went to sleep last night, I learned that Laszlo Varga, world-renowned cellist and a dear family friend, had passed away. I grew up with Mr. Varga as a musical mentor. Like many of my students at the ANIM, he spent much of his childhood in an orphanage, where he had the chance to study music. In 1944 he was interred in a Hungarian-Nazi Labor Camp, where he managed to survive for several months before escaping to Budapest. After the war, he came to America with the Léner Quartet and acted as Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic for 11 years, working under Dimitri Mitropoulos and Leonard Bernstein.

I think of him, and of the struggles that he endured as an artist. I think of my students in Kabul, of Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, the excellent ANIM faculty, and all the others who are fighting every day to keep art alive in Afghanistan. I think of the families here who are afraid for the safety of their children, and who continue to stand up for what they know is right. And I know that this is the time.

Artists, speak up! If we communicate, if we truly act, if we take part in our global community, we will see the changes that so badly need to come. Music is a powerful voice in this discussion. It is time for each and every one of us to seriously decide what we have to say.