{"id":809,"date":"2008-02-25T16:23:43","date_gmt":"2008-02-26T00:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/25\/local-connection-to-nyphil-pyongyang-visit\/"},"modified":"2008-02-28T07:35:29","modified_gmt":"2008-02-28T15:35:29","slug":"local-connection-to-nyphil-pyongyang-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/25\/local-connection-to-nyphil-pyongyang-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"local connection to nyphil pyongyang visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of you may be unaware that Oregon Symphony violinist Elena Hirsu’s father Valentin is a cellist with the New York Phiharmonic. He is profiled<\/a> in today’s New York Times while the orchestra is visiting North Korea. He was asking for information from North Korean musicians as to the whereabouts of several orphaned North Korean refugee musicians whom he knew from music school in Bucharest, Romania, over 50 years ago, and who were later returned back to North Korea after the Korean War.<\/p>\n

PYONGYANG, North Korea \u00e2\u20ac\u201d For much of his 60 years, Valentin Hirsu has thought of those three Korean boys in his class.<\/p>\n

It was at Music School No. 1 in Bucharest, Romania. The boys were North Korean orphans from the war that had torn up their country. One played piano, another clarinet, the third flute.<\/p>\n

After about six years, they were taken home.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hirsu never heard from them again. Now, in Pyongyang as a cellist with the visiting New York Philharmonic, he is asking about their fate.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a crime not to look for them if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said on the eve of the orchestra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s departure from Beijing. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if they are alive or minister of culture. How am I supposed to know?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of you may be unaware that Oregon Symphony violinist Elena Hirsu’s father Valentin is a cellist with the New York Phiharmonic. He is profiled in today’s New York Times while the orchestra is visiting North Korea. He was asking for information from North Korean musicians as to the whereabouts of several orphaned North Korean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-new-york-philharmonic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-d3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/10\/new-york-phil-to-play-pyongyang\/","url_meta":{"origin":809,"position":0},"title":"new york phil to play pyongyang","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's finally official: the New York Philharmonic will play a concert in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, in February 2008. Here's a teaser from the NY Times article: Adding a cultural wrinkle to the diplomatic engagement between the United States and North Korea, the New York Philharmonic plans to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/28\/harold-in-pyongyang\/","url_meta":{"origin":809,"position":1},"title":"Madame Harold in Pyongyang","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"New York Philharmonic violist Dawn Hannay kept a blog of her part of the orchestra's tour of North Korea. You can find it here. P1050021 | Originally uploaded by dawnvlaclick photo to enlarge Thanks to MH for the link.","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":467,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/05\/ny-phil-to-play-in-n-korea\/","url_meta":{"origin":809,"position":2},"title":"NY Phil to play in N. Korea?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's NY Times: With the encouragement of the State Department, officials of the New York Philharmonic were en route to North Korea yesterday to discuss a possible concert in Pyongyang in February. The idea of a visit to North Korea, where the totalitarian government keeps a tight rein on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":584,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/11\/more-reaction-to-nyphil-n-korea-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":809,"position":3},"title":"more reaction to nyphil n. korea news","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE (11\/12): Yet another follow-follow-up article from the New York Times: But before addressing the news media, Mr. Pak, the permanent representative of his country to the United Nations, met briefly with orchestra officials and their public relations advisers. They agreed to avoid discussing North Korea\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nuclear program, a major\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":739,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/06\/pbsabc-news-to-broadcast-nyphil-from-north-korea\/","url_meta":{"origin":809,"position":4},"title":"pbs\/abc news to broadcast nyphil from north korea","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This just hit the wires moments ago - and it's exciting stuff - I can remember in my lifetime when a major US news organization had a part in broadcasting a classical music concert. The only parallel in my mind might be Leonard Bernstein conducting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony just after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":440,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/21\/east-meets-west\/","url_meta":{"origin":809,"position":5},"title":"east meets west","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Every now and then I stumble upon some insight that really throws me. These gems, big and small, rough or brilliantly polished, turn my conceptions of the world upside down, make me think of things anew, and get me to question what I know of myself and my view of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/GxplDa3M5Io\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}