Music Transcends the Borders of North Korea

Music Transcends the Borders of North Korea

Last night I watched Christiane Amanpour's Notes from North Korea. In her own words, it is the "holy grail of assignments."

"...when CNN asked me to cover the historic trip of the New York Philharmonic to Pyongyang at the end of February, I jumped at the chance. After months of negotiations, the North Korean government agreed to the orchestra's demands for playing Pyongyang, which happily for us included bringing in a large contingent of journalists. I was under no illusion that we journalists would have free run of the place -- far from it. However, any access is better than none, and any time is better than never, even in the dead of freezing North Korean winter."

The reporting was tightly controlled but it was still fascinating peek at a country and its people under communist rule. My favorite part of the program was a feature on New York Philharmonic's  historic concert in North Korea. The music and the emotional reaction of the performers and audience sent shivers up and down my spine.

Here's a video of the historic concert. New York Philharmonic rocks!

 

Music is indeed a language that transcends barriers. Hopefully, this is a good start at breaking those barriers as well.