PYONGYANG, North Korea, Feb. 26 (UPI)
New York Philharmonic plays in North Korea
The New York Philharmonic opened its performance in North Korea with a rendition of the U.S. national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
The orchestra also played its host country's national anthem Patriotic Song
at the 90-minute, televised concert Tuesday in a hall packed with about 1,500 people, the Yonhap news agency said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il didn't attend the concert, but Yang Hyong Sup, vice president of the Supreme People's Assembly, sat in the front row for the performance, the report said.
The program included Richard Wagner's Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin,
Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 From the New World
and George Gershwin's An American in Paris.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
