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The University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music reversed course and announced it would postpone a planned orchestral tour in China after three students from South Korea were unable to get visas, the school's dean, Jamal J. Rossi, announced. Rossi wrote in a message to faculty members that the visa problems were “related to a 2016 decision by the U.S. to deploy a missile defense system in South Korea,” which China responded to “by blocking South Korean artists from performing in China.”
Rossi initially announced that the school would proceed with the tour despite the visa problems. “Since becoming Eastman’s dean six years ago, I have tried to make certain that everything we do enhances our reputation internationally,” Rossi wrote in a separate message last week to students. “I believe that cancelling Philharmonia’s first international tour in more than 30 years just two months in advance of the tour would reflect very badly on our school."
However, on Tuesday Rossi announced that the school would postpone the tour until all members of the orchestra could participate. He said efforts to get all the students appropriate visas to perform had continued and had not been successful.
