Cellist Performs At Rights Concert

Acclaimed cellist Bong-Ihn Koh ’08 headlined a benefit concert on Friday for North Korean refugees organized by a newly-recognized undergraduate group dedicated to human rights in the country.

Harvard Undergraduates for Human Rights in North Korea (HRiNK)—officially recognized by the College just last Tuesday—sponsored the event to raise money and awareness for North Korean defectors. Forty people filled the Cabot House Living Room, helping HRiNK raise $500.

Jieun Baek ’09, co-founder and director of HRiNK, began the night with an introduction to human rights violations in North Korea.

Among the violations she discussed were state-run abortions that seek “to cause as much pain to the women as possible,” punishment of up to three generations of a family for the crime of a single family member, and the capture of children as political prisoners.

“It’s a systematic way to break down people,” Baek said of the violations in an interview yesterday.

After the introduction, Koh and piano accompanist Hsin-Bei Lee, a professional pianist and MIT affiliate, performed three pieces: Benjamin Britten’s “Cello Sonata,” Frederic Chopin’s “Cello Sonata,” and Astor Piazzolla’s “Le Grande Tango.”

Koh said he carefully selected the three pieces to coincide with the theme of the concert.

On the Britten sonata, Koh said, “I chose this piece to begin the program because the first movement is called ‘Dialogo’—Dialogue—and I think it’s very important for North Korea and the rest of the world to have a dialogue, or human rights cannot be achieved.”

Koh said he chose to play Chopin’s “Cello Sonata” because “that piece is really just packed with emotions.”

He continued, “This is exactly how I feel about the human rights violations in North Korea. It’s this really weird mixture of emotions—it’s not just anger, it’s not just frustration, or just pure sadness—it’s everything combined.”

Samer M. Haidar ’08, who attended the concert, said he was impressed with the concert’s atmosphere and HRiNK as a whole.

“It’s a a small group of students, but they’re very, very committed,” he said. “They let the music show for itself what it’s about.”

HRiNK—a group of 24 students who hold weekly meetings to organize events that raise awareness—evolved this year from the Harvard chapter of the national organization Liberty in North Korea (LiNK).

Baek said that members decided to form an independent organization both because Harvard doesn’t officially recognize chapters of national organizations on campus, and to remove the need for oversight from a national bureaucracy.

Last month, HRiNK sponsored a screening of the documentary “Seoul Train,” and plans to screen three more documentaries in the spring. They also plan to hold an HRiNK awareness week in April and hope to put on a largescale benefit concert next fall.

Koh said that he plans to donate a “significant portion” of his concert earnings in the next year to HRiNK.

“I felt I was really making a difference in the world,” Koh said of his performance, “and a musician can’t ask for anything more.”

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.