and abroad. opinions sharply divided on its impact on international relations. Nevertheless, as Eric Latzky, the Philharmonic’s vice president of communications, asserts, the Pyongyang visit “codified a role that the New York Philharmonic has played historically, and certainly in the second half of the twentieth century,” citing appearances like the one in Dresden in 2005, when the Philharmonic performed at the rededication of the city’s landmark Frauenkirche, destroyed during World War II. Tours like these sometimes happen between countries that are well along in the process of rapprochement and reconciliation—like the Vietnam and Germany visits. In other cases, as with North Korea, they happen amidst fierce debate about the message that might be conveyed americanorchestras.org
by playing music in a country whose policies the U.S. strongly opposes. Clearly, there are risks to stepping—even lightly—into the potentially thorny area of cultural diplomacy, so why do orchestras do it? Sometimes it is done to spark a diplomatic conversation, using the “international language” of music as a conduit. It can be a way to share Western classical music and American culture with parts of the world that may not have a positive view of the United States. For young musicians at home and abroad, playing side-by-side with musicians from ethnically, politically, or religiously opposed groups can lead to reduced tensions down the road. Altruistic motives are behind efforts by musicians to fill educational gaps in war-ravaged countries: places
where teachers, instruments, sheet music, and the basic infrastructure of music education are lacking. And sometimes cultural diplomacy stems from a desire to simply ease the pain of survivors of a physical catastrophe by raising money to help rebuild homes—or just playing Brahms or Mozart as a way to let people know someone cares. The tradition of high-profile international orchestra tours during politically fraught times is a longstanding one. During the height of the Cold War, in 1956, the Boston Symphony Orchestra toured the Soviet Union, with conductors Charles Munch and Pierre Monteux, and the New York Philharmonic’s visit to that same country under Leonard Bernstein took place in 1959. If you’d been in Beijing or Shanghai
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Chris Lee
Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra perform at the World Expo in Shanghai, China, May 2010.