North Korean Orchestra May Perform in US
By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
North Korea's main symphony orchestra may be running into a scheduling conflict for its overseas tour involving performances in Britain and the United States.
Pyongyang's State Symphony Orchestra has been planning to perform in Britain this year, marking the Stalinist nation's largest-ever musical performance abroad, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Thursday. The event was slated for late September and was expected to be broadcast live by the BBC. The North Korean orchestra reportedly includes 120 musicians and dozens of support personnel.
But RFA said that officials from the United States are trying to invite the North Korean Symphony Orchestra to perform in America in early October, effectively creating a major scheduling conflict.
The Seoul-based National Unification Advisory Council and a New York-based non-profit organization, the Korea Society, are reportedly sponsoring the orchestra's U.S. visit, with cooperation from the U.S. State Department.
The RFA quoted a British politician, who is assisting the North Korean orchestra's planned visit to Britain, as saying that the situation has become ``confusing.''
According to Suzannah Clarke, a member of a British orchestra who is assisting with the event: ``We think it's a shame because we understand now certainly they (the United States) are trying to organize something at the beginning of October, which could actually clash with the dates we might be doing in September, at the end of September."
Clarke said she has made an inquiry to the U.S. government and to Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy in the six-party nuclear negotiations, about the U.S. effort to invite the North Korean orchestra and its possible U.S. tour schedule. But she has not yet heard back from the U.S. officials, according to RFA.
The report said the North Korean government may be focusing more on setting up the orchestra's possible performance in the United States, which would be a reciprocal visit following the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang in February.
The North Korean orchestra may also embark on a world tour next year that would include various stops in Britain and the United States as well as in South Korea, according to the report.