ICYMI: What does it take to be a musician in North Korea, where music is used as a tool for propaganda?
"[Musicians] only played didactic propaganda tunes in accordance with predetermined programs," writes North Korean defector, Jin. https://t.co/pQh2fOdINf
Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s next music director Jaap Van Zweden, a Dutch conductor and violinist who has been appointed as new music director of Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, poses for a photo during a press conference at the Sejong Cultural Center in Seoul on Jan. 17, 2023. He will lead the organization starting from 2024. (Yonhap)
Members of North Korea’s all-women “Moranbong Band” shake hands with officials before heading out to China for a friendship visit in this photo published by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Dec. 9, 2015. The three-year-old band, formed by the country’s current top leader Kim Jong-un, stands out with the members’ stylish stage clothes. (Yonhap)
Singers from the Moranbong band and musicians from the State Merited Chorus perform in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. The performance was part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party. WONG MAYE-E/AP
Going to see North Korea’s most popular musical groups is kind of like a night at the concert anywhere — except for just about everything.
There will be a pretty good light show. The skill of the performers will be unquestionable, their melodies pleasing to the ear. The arena will probably be packed and the crowd will rise to their feet several times to applaud. But for most non-North Koreans, that’s where the feeling of familiarity quickly tapers off.
In authoritarian North Korea, everything must have a political message — even, and perhaps especially, its state-sponsored entertainment.
After a spectacular military parade and mass rally in Pyongyang to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the country’s ruling party on Saturday, North Korea’s capital was filled with the sound of music Sunday as some of its most popular performers took the stage, one of which was built specifically for the festivities and floats on a river.
Headlining the effort to give the normally dour capital a more celebratory mood for the next few days are the State Merited Chorus and its orchestra, who on Sunday shared the stage with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s own hand-picked girl group, the Moranbong Band.
Yet to be seen is the Chongbong Band, which remains somewhat mysterious but has been hailed by the state-run media as the next big thing on the North Korean music scene. [Associated Press]
This photo released on Sept. 2, 2015, by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, shows North Korea’s national female choir Chongbong staging a performance, along with the North’s State Merited Chorus, at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow on Aug. 31, 2015. It marks the first time the all-female band, founded by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in July 2015, has performed to the public. (Yonhap)
