N.Y Philharmonic tunes up in N. Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea (CNN) -- The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is preparing to play a historic concert in North Korea on Tuesday -- but no word yet on whether leader Kim Jong Il will attend.

In a country where music -- like most aspects of life -- is tightly controlled, symbolism will be heavy in the performance. Among the tunes on the play list are "The Star Spangled Banner" and "An American In Paris."

And in the orchestra, a symbol of North Korea's history -- Michelle Kim, who was born in South Korea to parents who fled from the North.

"This might not solve the problems with the U.S. politically but it will be in their hearts as something to remember," said assistant concert master Kim. Musician is a symbol of Korean divide »

Conductor Lorin Maazel added: "I have conducted orchestras in countries where I don't speak the language but I speak the language of music and so do they. We get along instantly."

Tuesday's concert in Pyongyang is part of an extended Asian concert series that has already taken the orchestra to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. The orchestra will perform in South Korea on Thursday.

When the tour was announced in December, orchestra president and executive director Zarin Mehta billed it as "a manifestation of the power of music to unite people."

In December, the orchestra's chairman, Paul Guenther, said he hopes that "the music of the Philharmonic, can, in some way, serve as a catalyst for positive change." Watch as orchestra prepares for performance »

The New York Philharmonic has performed in 420 cities in 58 countries, including a trip to the former Soviet Union in 1959.

At the time of the announcement, the group said it accepted an invitation from North Korea's Ministry of Culture only after discussing it with the U.S. State Department.

It followed an October announcement by the two nations that they would increase cultural exchanges as part of an agreement on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program.

The Philharmonic accepted the North's invitation to play last year with the encouragement of the U.S. government at a time of rare optimism in the long-running nuclear standoff involving the two countries.

After successfully testing an atomic bomb in October 2006, North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor in July and is working to disable it in exchange for aid and removal from U.S. terrorism and sanctions blacklists.

But disarmament has stalled this year due to what Washington says is North Korea's failure to give a full declaration of its atomic programs to be eventually dismantled, something it promised to do under an international agreement.

The visit comes as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended Monday's inauguration of South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak. She said before leaving Washington that she had no plans to stop in Pyongyang during a trip that also takes her to China and Japan.

"I don't think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea," Rice, a classical pianist herself, said Friday, while also conceding the benefit of the event in giving North Koreans a window to the outside world.

The performance will begin with the orchestra playing the national anthems of both countries and the U.S. and North Korean flags will stand together on stage, said the Philharmonic's president and executive director, Zarin Mehta.

Ahead of their arrival, North Korea was even tearing down the anti-American posters that line the streets of Pyongyang, Mehta said Sunday, citing a diplomat based there who briefed the orchestra before its departure from Beijing, the last stop on a tour of the greater China region.

Such posters typically portray iron-faced North Korean soldiers with rifles poised to strike cowering Americans or crushing Washington's Capitol dome.

The Asiana Airlines plane carrying the musicians landed in overcast conditions with light snow Monday. Footage from broadcaster APTN showed North Korean officials putting a staircase next to the plane and holding a discussion for several minutes before people started to get off the plane.

Musicians preparing for the trip said they hoped personal contacts with North Koreans could help bring the countries closer.

"I think the openness is the most important issue here, and this is going to be the groundbreaking start of the whole thing. We're making music together and playing for the people and I think that this will be a great, great contribution," Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow said at the Beijing airport.

But some also worried their performance would fail to cause any positive change in the country where famine in the 1990s is believed to have killed as many as 2 million people.

"I've had a lot of moral reservations based on wondering what a concert for the elite is going to do to help the people starving in the street," said Irene Breslaw, 58, a violist. E-mail to a friend

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