Philadelphia Orchestra play Dvořák on airport runway

7 June 2013, 16:31

Worried about taking your instrument on a plane? How about taking an entire orchestra with you?

Passengers on a delayed flight in China were surprised by a pop-up performance from the Philadelphia Orchestra early this morning. A quartet from the orchestra entertained fellow travellers with Dvořák's American String Quartet No. 12 as they waited for their plane to take off en route to Macau from Beijing.

This is not the first impromptu performance from the orchestra during their 40th anniversary tour of China. Since they arrived on 28 May, the players have sprung their music on a series of unsuspecting hotel guests, shoppers, and office staff throughout the country with a variety of planned and unplanned concerts in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, and Macao.

It's one of a handful of unexpected aeroplane performances, which seem to have escalated since travel restrictions in the US were relaxed, allowing instruments to be carried on aircraft. European instrumentalists celebrated similar legislation earlier this year.

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