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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
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PREMIUM NEWS ARCHIVE

Soft power and a rapturous ovation; Cultural diplomacy.(New York Philharmonic Orchestra performs in Pyongyang)

Article from: The Economist (US) Article date: March 1, 2008

Maestro Maazel

North Koreans listened to music they had never heard before--Gershwin, Dvorak and the "Star-Spangled Banner"--in an historic first visit by an American orchestra

FOR at least 90 minutes in a theatre in Pyongyang it was possible for thoseattending a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to believe that 55 years of cold-war hostility were coming to an end. North Koreans said they were impressed by the music of their foe. Their American guests, astonished to be there at all, spoke of a thaw beginning.

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