The day the music died: Afghanistan's all-female orchestra falls silent

FILE PHOTO: Members of the Zohra orchestra, an ensemble of 35 women, practises during a session, at Afghanistan's National Institute of Music, in Kabul, Afghanistan April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

(Reuters) -Negin Khpalwak was sitting at her home in Kabul when she got word that the Taliban had reached the outskirts of the capital.

The 24-year old conductor, once the face of Afghanistan's renowned all-female orchestra, immediately began to panic.