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Jenny Heinz, a longtime Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic subscriber, calculates that over the past 60 years, she has been to hundreds of performances at Lincoln Center. But when she showed up this month at David Geffen Hall to see the Budapest Festival Orchestra, she was barred from attending when she refused to remove an 8-by-11-inch sign affixed to the back of her jacket. It read: “NO! In the name of humanity we refuse to accept a fascist America.” Ms. Heinz, 72, said she had been wearing the sign since she attended a protest outside Trump Tower in November....

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupt Israeli orchestra's London performance. BBC Radio forced to suspend broadcast. UK minister tweets: Demonstrators turned entire audience pro-Israel Anti-Israel protesters disrupted a live BBC broadcast of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra playing in London's Royal Albert Hall. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was participating in the BBC Proms summer classical music festival. BBC Radio 3, which carried a live broadcast of Thursday's concert, was forced to suspend the broadcast several times, over the protesters shouting and heckling.

The New York Philharmonic, hoping to notch another exotic destination in its touring history, said on Thursday it had been invited to perform in Cuba and was seriously considering such a visit. The orchestra’s president, Zarin Mehta, and other of its officials planned to travel to Havana on Friday to investigate concert halls, hotels and other logistical matters. The Philharmonic has received licenses to travel there, in light of the United States embargo. The trip would be yet another recent dip into cold-war waters for the Philharmonic. It would take place just a few days after the orchestra returns from...

On the heels of its attention-grabbing trip to North Korea last February, the New York Philharmonic is planning another high-profile visit for next season: to Vietnam. The stop, part of an Asian tour in October, will be a splashy opening to Alan Gilbert’s tenure as the orchestra’s new music director. (snip) In Communist Vietnam, a freewheeling utopia of commerce compared with the hermetic, impoverished and tightly controlled North Korea, the orchestra will play at the Hanoi Opera House. Completed in 1911 during French colonial rule and modeled after the Paris Opera, it has about 600 seats, according to its Web...

At the close of last night's hourlong performance by the China Philharmonic in the Paul VI Hall, B16 offered the following remarks, as released by the Holy See Press Office: Dear Friends! Another high-quality musical performance sees us gathered once again in the Paul VI Audience Hall. For me and for all of us here, it takes on a particular value and meaning. Since it is offered and performed by the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, it puts us in touch, as it were, with the living reality of the world of China. I thank...

Just happened a few hours ago in brutal communist North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.The New York Philharmonic. CLICK HERE, THEN UNDER THE SINGER'S PHOTO, HIT PLAYBe patient as it loads. May not be viewable on all PCs.

PYONGYANG, North Korea - The New York Philharmonic arrived in North Korea on Monday on a historic trip as the most prominent American cultural institution to visit the nuclear-armed country, run by a regime that keeps its impoverished people among the world's most isolated. North Korea made unprecedented accommodations for the orchestra, allowing a delegation of nearly 300 people, including musicians, staff and journalists to fly into Pyongyang on a chartered plane for 48 hours. The Philharmonic's concert Tuesday will be broadcast live on North Korea's state-run TV and radio, unheard of in a country where all events are carefully...

On the eve of the New York Philharmonic's departure on an Asian tour that will include a visit to Pyongyang, its music director, Lorin Maazel, suggested that Americans are not in a position to criticize the North Korean regime, because America's own record on human rights is flawed. "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks, should they?" Mr. Maazel told the Associated Press. "Is our standing as a country — the United States — is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated? Have we set an example that should...

It was one of the more unusual moments on the stage of Avery Fisher Hall: North Korea’s highest-ranking diplomat in the United States stood next to the podium on Tuesday and welcomed the musicians of the New York Philharmonic to his country. “We are ready to receive you,” the official, Pak Gil Yon, told the players, who responded with mild applause. “I sincerely wish you a good performance and pleasant stay in Pyongyang.” Mr. Pak was also asked, provocatively, whether Mozart or Mr. Kim, who has been credited with directing movies and other creative accomplishments, was the greater opera composer....

If North Korea keeps its promises, potentially millions of its isolated, tightly controlled citizens are likely to hear their national anthem played on the radio by the New York Philharmonic. And then they will hear “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a quintessential American symbol, in a place long subjected to anti-American propaganda. Today the orchestra is to present details of its planned trip to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in late February. So far it has declined to discuss repertory. But State Department officials, who have advised the orchestra as it was deciding whether to accept an invitation, have said the government...

Kim Jong-Il courts New York Phil for Pyongyang gig AFP Aug 14 02:24 PM US/Eastern The communist state's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-Il, recently invited the New York Philharmonic to play in the capital Pyongyang, a spokesman for the world-renowned orchestra said. "We received an invitation to perform in Pyongyang through an independent representative on behalf of the ministry of culture of North Korea," the orchestra's director of public relations, Eric Latzky, told AFP. *snip* But he said the orchestra would only make a decision after discussions with the US government, which has labelled Pyongyang part of the so-called "Axis of...

This is the third part of an exclusive 10-part series on CNN.com/Career, on the working lives of musicians who play with the New York Philharmonic, one of the world's premiere symphony orchestras. This week's Player: Phil Smith, principal trumpet. He grew up in a Salvation Army family, playing cornet on street corners and in church bands. His father, a Salvation Army band soloist, was his only teacher. But Phil Smith was a player gifted enough to make it into Juilliard with no formal training -- then to the Chicago Symphony on his first audition; and then, while still in his...

Have you ever been to Lincoln Center in New York? I had never been there until yesterday, when I was privileged enough to attend an opera at the Met. Although the opera was wonderful, I dare say I was even more impressed with the architecture of the entire center. It seems to me to be the epitome of modern architecture of the second phase of the International Style (that simplified skyscraper style with often-elegant materials, steel beams, and glass). In fact, the beauty and style of Lincoln Center could be said to rival the music created within. I had always...

NEW YORK - A violinist who claims the New York Philharmonic fired him because he is a man says some of the women who were promoted ahead of him gave flowers and other gifts to their bosses. Anton Polezhayev, 29, says in a lawsuit that he was asked to leave after the 2003-2004 season, in the last month of his 17-month probation, despite being told by orchestra officials that he was doing "a fine job" and that his playing was "perfect." Polezhayev's lawyer, Lenard Leeds, said Friday that the Philharmonic's personnel manager, Carl R. Schiebler, even wrote a letter to...