Philly chief defends North Korea visit

Matías Tarnopolsky, president of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has written an op-ed in the NY Times arguing that orchestral music can achieve breakthroughs in cultural diplomacy.

Historically speaking there is a case to be made – certainly in respect of Philly’s first trip to China 50 years ago. But Tarnopolsky choose to focus on the New York Philharmonic’s 2008 jaunt to North Korea, which almost everyone regards as a pointless exercise – or worse. The citizens of Pyongyang starved while the New York musicians were feted at banquets. Nobody in North Korea saw any improvements to their lives. All that endured were a few snaps by the American musicians for their family albums.

Here‘s Tarnopolsky’s counter-claim:

Can music pull the world back from the brink? In early 2008, I was working on the New York Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang, a project conceived to enhance the atmosphere of the six-party talks on the denuclearization of North Korea. At the time, observers and even many of the musicians themselves questioned whether any potential good would come of the effort. But for those present — a delegation of some 400 Americans including the orchestra, supporters and the largest contingent of foreign journalists to visit North Korea since Madeleine Albright’s 2000 visit as secretary of state — it turned out to be a profoundly inspiring journey.

What happened in Pyongyang, at minimum, was a group of Americans and North Koreans, citizens of sworn enemies, sat in a room together for a couple of hours and listened to Dvorak, Gershwin and, as an encore, the Korean folk song “Arirang,” which is part of the soul of every Korean on either side of the Demilitarized Zone and caused many members of the audience to tear up.

But it was so much more than that. The emotion of that shared occasion in the concert hall is forever etched in my mind, and, I am sure, in the memory of all who were there. Diplomatically, politically and socially, we were far apart, but because of the music, we were humanized for each other, even for a short time. That is real progress.

How, really?