TIMELINE: Orchestra diplomacy across political divides

(Reuters) - The New York Philharmonic will play in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on February 26 in an unprecedented visit officials say could break cultural boundaries and draw the United States and North Korea closer.

It will be the first time a high-profile Western orchestra has played in the reclusive communist state, formally at war with the U.S. since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce rather than a peace agreement.

Here are some other examples of landmark "cultural diplomacy" trips made by Western orchestras into communist countries that typically exercise tight controls on the arts.

* September 1956: Boston Symphony Orchestra makes history as first major U.S. ensemble to travel to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The orchestra played four sold-out concerts, opening in Leningrad with the Soviet national anthem followed by the U.S. anthem.

* August-October 1959: The New York Philharmonic, under conductor Leonard Bernstein, travels to the Soviet Union for three weeks as part of a mammoth European and Middle Eastern tour. Bernstein programs a piece of U.S. music for each concert.

* March 1973: The London Philharmonic Orchestra becomes the first Western ensemble to visit China since Communist leader Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic in 1949. It performs five concerts to capacity crowds who hear Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak and Haydn for the first time in years.

* September 1973: Following Richard Nixon's historic February 1972 visit, the first by a U.S. president to China, the Philadelphia Orchestra becomes first U.S. ensemble to travel to China. Their welcome by China's Central Philharmonic Chorus, singing "America the Beautiful" in English, moves some of the Americans to tears.

U.S. national security adviser Henry Kissinger says the visit is one of the measures leading to normalization of relations between the U.S. and China.

* February 2008: The United States' oldest symphony orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, makes first visit to Pyongyang, North Korea, where it will play George Gershwin's "An American in Paris", Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From The New World", and the U.S. and North Korean national anthems. Critics question the appropriateness of the Philharmonic's visit to North Korea, whose communist government Washington considers one of the world's most repressive.

Sources: Reuters, Association of British Orchestras (here), Leonard Bernstein Web site, (here

sp), Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese , By Sheila Melvin

(Writing by Gillian Murdoch, Singapore Editorial Reference Unit)