War-torn Afghanistan is taking time to finish its recovery and reconstruction. Music has been taken out of people’s life for a long time under the rule of Taliban. But a special band of musicians are giving the recovering nation something to smile about.

CCTV America’s Biresh Banerjee filed the report.

Highlights:

• In the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the philharmonic is rehearsing the national anthem. The average of the members of the nation’s only philharmonic, which was founded in 2013, is 16 years and most are from different ethnicities.
• In December 2014, the French cultural center was hit by a Taliban suicide bombing. Students from the music school were performing there and Sarmast was just near the attacker. A German citizen was killed and Sarmast was seriously injured and became nearly deaf.