Visit from Korean pianist Cheol-Woon Kim
May 20, 2008

On May 20, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem participated in an exercise in cross-border diplomacy, hosting a visit by Korean pianist Cheol-Woon Kim. Cheol-Woon was born and received his primary musical education in North Korea. He was sent for further training to the Soviet Union, where he first heard jazz. When he was discovered playing jazz upon his return to North Korea, he was forced to write pages of self-criticism. He became determined to escape to a place where he could exercise musical freedom. He swam the Tuman River to China and was returned twice to North Korea. After three escapes he arrived in South Korea, where he is based today.

A group from the Jazz Museum met for dinner with Cheol-Woon and his translator, Jihiae Choi. She is a staffer with the National Endowment for Democracy, which sponsored Cheol-Woon's trip. Among the Jazz Museum group were the Museum's executive Director Loren Schoenberg, board member Jonathan Scheuer, musicians Dominick Farinacci and Aaron Diehl, Yvonne Simons, Executive Director of the Anne Frank Foundation, as well as Leonard Garment, the Museum's Chairman Emeritus and his wife, Suzanne Garment, currently a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, which sponsored Mr. Kim's American visit.The group initially overcame the language barrier thanks to Jihiae; then the barrier disappeared when Cheol-Woon began to talk about the music that was common to the entire group. In the only sobering element of the dinner, Cheol-Woon's story made the group clearly aware of the hostility of the North Korean regime to freedom of musical expression.