Biden and Xi praised the Philadelphia Orchestra’s ‘musical diplomacy’. But did it work?

In November, a group of 14 musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra traveled to China, embedding themselves in orchestras in Beijing and Suzhou, performing chamber music at the Shanghai Children’s Palace, leading master classes, and reconnecting with a country that — more than any other besides the U.S. — has been central to the orchestra’s identity.

The tour, from Nov. 9 to 18, was (in one respect) a consolation prize. The entire orchestra was to have traveled to China this past May to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 1973 appearance as the first American orchestra to visit the People’s Republic of China. The larger trip was canceled because of the Chinese government’s restrictive COVID-19 protocols.

This timing of this smaller tour, however, had perhaps a bigger impact. Coming on the eve of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week in San Francisco and the meeting of Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping after what many have described as a low point in China-U.S. dealings.

The U.S. ambassador to China, R. Nicholas Burns, was both in China for the orchestra’s visit and in San Francisco for APEC, and spoke with me about the orchestra’s tour and its role at a pivotal and fraught time in the relationship between the two countries.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

A: Well, it is. You know, this relationship between the U.S. and China is enormously complicated. And in the bad times when we have very public disagreements — the balloon incident in February of this year, Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan 16 months ago — in the state-controlled press here [in China], the commentary about the United States is almost always uniformly negative.

This is a different time. We’ve had a very successful meeting between President Biden and President Xi in San Francisco with a climate that was better where we announced progress on military-to-military communications, the fight against fentanyl. And so in the state-controlled press, they take their cues, and it’s been more positive coverage.

And I must say that the arrival of the orchestra — I spent a lot of time with them — was really perfectly timed to take advantage of this relatively better climate.

And I also think the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy was a major, major part of our opening to China back in 1972, ‘73.

President Nixon actually called Eugene Ormandy after Nixon’s trip to China to say, “Would you please take the orchestra and go to China?” And it was the performance of the orchestra, its arrival in Beijing and Shanghai 50 years ago, which was the first appearance following the ping-pong team in 1971, really, of Americans in China.

We had been completely cut off between 1949 and 1972. We had no diplomatic relationship, no representation here, no embassy, very few Americans.

And suddenly, here’s this magnificent orchestra, 100 people playing in front of Mao’s wife in a packed hall in Beijing and in Shanghai, and the Chinese remember this.

And so when they came back this time of a relatively better climate, Xi Jinping wrote a letter to Matías Tarnopolsky, the leader of the orchestra. There are glowing newspaper accounts. I held a reception at our ambassador’s house here in Beijing, overflowing with Chinese guests. There were two great performances in Beijing, and my wife and I attended both. And it really made an impact here. I was so pleased about that, because we needed this shot in the arm.

The U.S.-China relationship, while we’re very competitive and we disagree on a lot, our people should be connected. And there’s no better way to do that than through the arts and music.

A: It is unusual. I’ve been here 20 months. I frankly don’t remember another example where both presidents have written a letter of congratulations to the same institution. And I was so pleased to see this.

A: I think that the orchestra visit last month was a very important event. Because for the people of China — those who saw the orchestra on CCTV, the main television channel, or maybe in the hall of the National Performing Arts Center, this beautiful new performing arts center in Beijing — they saw an American symphony orchestra for the first time in many years here.

COVID separated the American and Chinese people. The Chinese policy of zero COVID meant lockdowns, closed borders. American tourism has disappeared in China. We had no such cultural performances for the last four years. Until this year, … no members of the U.S. cabinet, no members of Congress had visited China until just recently.

And so out of this vacuum, [Philadelphia Orchestra violinist] Davyd Booth, who was here as a young member of the orchestra in 1973, returned and became a media star. He was all over the place, very articulate. And he talked about what it was like to come here in 1973.

So I do think it made a difference. I was very happy to see it. I thank the orchestra for coming.

The full orchestra wasn’t here this time. But the full orchestra is coming back next autumn, and we’re going to be very supportive of that. And we’ll want to see continued people-to-people contact.

The way I think about this relationship is that we have very serious disagreements with China that have not disappeared in the national security realm and in terms of the challenge that China poses to us militarily, technologically, in terms of human rights. And that’s not going to disappear.

So we’re going to be competing with China, with the government of China. But the people of China, we want to get to know them, we want to maintain contact with American citizens. And I think the orchestra visit was really a diplomatic initiative in many ways, not just a musical initiative.

It’s in line with a recent program that Secretary of State Tony Blinken — who’s also a musician, a guitarist — set up, the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, just weeks ago. And the Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the first big manifestations of that program.

A: It does. I was in San Francisco with President Biden for the meeting with President Xi, and President Xi gave a speech the evening of the meeting with President Biden where he mentioned the Philadelphia Orchestra as one of the initiatives that had produced a better climate in the relationship.

And again, I think the emphasis here is the people of China, 1.4 billion of them, they want to have connections with the United States, and we should want to have connections with them over the long term. We want to keep this relationship peaceful, obviously, we want to avoid conflict. And one way to do that is to rebuild these ties between people, whether it’s through the Philadelphia Orchestra or sports diplomacy.

Basketball is really big, and I would offer the Sixers, but unfortunately, I’m a Celtics fan. So I’m going to have to, in this case, not want a Philadelphia team to come here. But you know, we have to rebuild these bridges.

A: One more thing. I’ve been struck by the degree to which music is so important in China, in Chinese history, in culture. My wife and I live next door to a 600-year-old Ming Dynasty park called Ritan park. And it’s very common for individuals just to stand under a pagoda in that park and sing opera or Chinese folk tunes.

And music plays a big role in the family culture. There are I think more people studying piano, playing piano, in China than in any other country in the world.

You know, there are big orchestras here in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu. It’s a vibrant music scene. That’s a big bridge that we can cultivate. And the Philadelphia Orchestra was the first institution to cross that bridge, at least in modern times.