HRO Cancels Performance in Poland

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) recently-cancelled its June trip to Poland in response to the U.S. State Department's freeze on funds provided for cultural exchange with Communist-bloc countries, E. Carr Everbach '82, business manager for HRO, said yesterday.

The department's cut funds for inter-European travel because of the tension caused by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Everbach added.

The Polish Union of Choirs and Orchestras had invited the group last fall to perform in this spring's annual international music festival to be held in the seaside resort of Gdansk, a student who wished to remain unidentified said yesterday.

Everbach said that the group had also planned to visit London and had currently been negotiating performance locations in France and Hungary through Harvard-based contacts.

Proposed arrangements for travel to Europe included benefit concerts on cruise ships in return for free passage or transportation by the US Armed Forces, Everbach said.

In addition to rearranging summer schedules and searching for summer jobs, the group's 100 members are "understandably disappointed. It's a great opportunity that they didn't want to miss," Everbach said.

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Students also questioned the political considerations of the fund cuts. "They (the U.S. State Department) could maintain relations with the satellite countries," Joyce Jacobson '82 said yesterday.

The Pierian Foundation funded the organization's journey to Berlin in fall '78, "severely draining" the foundation's funds, Everbach added. The foundation currently "provides continuity in the changing HRO student administration, serving basically an advisory capacity," Everbach said.