[1] It was founded in 2010 by the Afghan-Australian ethnomusicologist Dr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast, and offers a curriculum combining the tuition of both Afghan and Western music.
[4][5] Per an agreement between Sarmast and the Afghan Ministry of Education, the school accommodates both exceptionally talented students and underprivileged children.
[7] In 2013, ANIM's Afghan Youth Orchestra toured the United States, including performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
[3][6] In 2014, a suicide bomb attack at a student concert killed an audience member and the bomber,[8] and injured many more, including Sarmast himself, who lost some of his hearing.
[15] After the Taliban's recapturing of Kabul on 15 August 2021, everything was destroyed, including all the school's instruments, and ANIM's administrators and students relocated to Lisbon, Portugal.