The concerts and workshops in London were a resounding success. As these performances were a first of their kind, media coverage helped to raise the profile of the venture prior to the performances and thereby to increase audience anticipation of the event. The concerts were filled to capacity and the response from the audience was overwhelming. Each performance was emotional and moving for both musicians and audience alike and artistically positive for the musicians. This can be evidenced by the comments of Ghulam Haidry, who said ‘To come here and see that people who do not even understand our language receive our music with such warmth and enthusiasm is great for us. It encourages us to go home and work more on our music, to rebuild our traditions. Even though we are able to play music in Afghanistan, some people still feel that music is sacrilegious. The concerts in the UK will give us great credibility and influence when we return to Kabul and it will help us to reinvigorate our traditional music’.

Bruce Wannell, who very successfully bridged the communication and cultural gap between audience and artists, introduced the musicians before performances and conducted workshops at the Bath International Music Festival. The workshops created an educational context that was extremely informative for the audience. The musicians, through translation, informed the audience of not only the artistic and historic musical and cultural developments in Afghanistan, but quite movingly relayed the rather poignant and tender personal experiences that they as artists have encountered back home. The concerts also provided the musicians with a valuable opportunity to play with Ustaad Asef Mahmud, the master tabla player with whom they had not been able to play for the last 20 years.

During the course of their stay the musicians also made a professional recording under the guise of the Asian Music Circuit. Through Visiting Arts they also performed at the British Museum in London prior to their departure back to Afghanistan. They finally departed the UK at the end of May.