An American in Pyongyang, back to the Cold War

By Jon Herskovitz

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - Stanley Drucker and his clarinet have blown their way through Cold War history.

Drucker is the longest-serving member of the oldest U.S. orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, which on Tuesday breaks new musical ground with a concert in hermit North Korea.

He joined the Philharmonic when it played a landmark concert in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. He was part of a concert under the baton of Leonard Bernstein to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now he is in Pyongyang on the Cold War's last frontier.

"I feel very lucky to have lived through these fantastic events and to have been a part of them. I guess I was in the right place at the right time," he said.

It is impossible to compare the impact of the Soviet concert and the one in North Korea.

However, there are visual similarities with the Cold War states, said Drucker, who joined the Philharmonic 60 years ago as a 19-year-old clarinetist.

"There was a starkness to the Soviet Union and there is a little bit of a starkness here," he said.

But music can break down barriers that exist between foes.

"I think this is going to be a start in North Korea where other artistic endeavors come here," he said.

In the Soviet Union, Bernstein won over the crowd with an impromptu jazz session. In Pyongyang, North Koreans will join the Philharmonic in playing a tune from the encore, which may be one of Bernstein's compositions.

The main pieces in Tuesday's concert will be George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" and the symphony "From the New World Symphony" by Antonin Dvorak.

"We have a number of Korean players in the New York Philharmonic and they are fantastic," Drucker said. "Someone said: 'Imagine the amount of violin talent in North Korea'."

(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)