SOUTH KOREA: Daniel Barenboim conducts West-Eastern Divan Orchestra near North-South Korean border

Record ID: 522950

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: Daniel Barenboim conducts West-Eastern Divan Orchestra near North-South Korean border
  • Date: 17th August 2011
  • Summary: AUDIENCE CHEERS / VARIOUS OF BARENBOIM BOWING AND LEAVING (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 70-YEAR-OLD LEE SOO-WON SAYING IN EMOTION: "I am really impressed with the good performance for our reconciliation and unity. I wish we could have the day of reconciliation and unity (unification) soon."
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVAE9ZTYNLXQSL4ZVRF9VF5G5D4M
  • Story Text: Daniel Barenboim conducted the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra on Monday (August 15) near the North-South Korean border.
    The orchestra played the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven at Imjingak in Paju, a border city near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ), dividing North and South Korea.
    Final chorus from Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" celebrated the 66th anniversary of liberation of the Korean peninsula from the Japanese rule (1910-45), urging North and South Koreans to work together for peace.
    An estimated 10,000 music lovers gathered at the border city to enjoy this rare concert. No North Korean nationals attended the concert.
    "Peaceful unification is our wish -- I am thankful for the concert expressing our wish with music instead of our words," said 46-year-old Kim Kyong-mi after the concert.
    Speaking after the concert, 70-year-old, Lee Soo-won described what seeing the concert meant to him.
    "I am really impressed with the good performance for our reconciliation and unity. I wish we could have the day of reconciliation and unity (unification) soon," said 70-year-old Lee Soo-won.
    World-renowned soprano Sumi Jo said she would never forget that concert.
    "We can share the sacred and important message of peace that we all are brothers as one through music at this performance. This concert will remain nicely in my memory, I will never forget this concert forever," said Jo.
    In 1999, late Palestinian scholar Edward Said and Jewish musician Daniel Barenboim, born in Buenos Aires in 1942, formed the West-Eastern Divan orchestra, composed of musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab countries.
    Barenboim and Said named the Orchestra after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's collection of poems entitled "West-Eastern Divan", a central work for the evolution of the concept of world culture.
    At a news conference last week (August 9) in Seoul, ahead of the concert, Barenboim emphasised the importance of dialogue and communication between two Koreas.
    "When they have shared the musical experience sometimes it makes dialogue and a little bit easier is no more than this," said Barenboim during a news conference in Seoul.
    North and South Korea are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce without a peace treaty. And the two Koreas station about one million troops near their respective sides of the DMZ.
    "Nothing would make me happier than if we could play a concert where all Koreans could come from the north, from the south, from the west, from the east, all Koreans," Barenboim added.
    The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has proved time and again that music can break down barriers previously considered insurmountable. The only political aspect prevailing the West-Eastern Divan's work is the conviction that there will never be a military solution to the Middle East conflict, and that the destinies of the Israelis and Palestinians are inextricably linked. Through its work and existence the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra demonstrates that bridges can be built to encourage people to listen to one another.
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