It just so happens that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- a very good piano player in her own right -- was in Seoul, South Korea, in late February while the New York Philharmonic was performing in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Coincidence? But of course.

Just like April 6, 1971, when the American Ping-Pong team, in Japan for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship, received a surprise invitation from their Chinese colleagues for a visit to the People's Republic. Thus creating -- in a roundabout way -- the opening of international relations between the U.S. and China, which led to a visit by President Richard Nixon later that year.

Well, maybe it's a stretch. But Albert Regni, a resident of Manakin Sabot, adjunct music professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and member of the New York Philharmonic, saw it up close and personal as the orchestra visited North Korea as part of its recent tour of the Orient.

"I've been a lot of places with the New York Philharmonic and other orchestras, but this was different," Regni said. "North Korea is obviously under strict dictatorial rule, but for the most part the people were quite nice to us.

"We ate well, the hotels were OK, the service was excellent and we got to see, hear and meet some North Korean musicians," Regni said. "And they have some fine musicians there."

The orchestra, with which Regni has played saxophone and bass clarinet for more than 40 years, also visited Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing and Seoul.

Pyongyang was the ultimate concert venue, obviously.

"Shortly after we arrived we attended a meeting at the North Korean Culture Center which turned out to be a performance by musicians and dancers, and it was amazing," Regni said. "None of the musicians used sheet music . . . it was all memorized, and it was perfect. Spectacular, really. It certainly changed our perception of what North Koreans were like.

"We see so little of them in the world that is outside theirs, and we thought that they probably were very backwards," Regni said. "But that's not really true.

"Yes, it's obvious that it's a very strict regime under which they live. . . . The streets are bare. No cars, no motorbikes, no bicycles. Basically only buses," Regni said. "But the art that runs in their souls can't be hidden."

"For the concert the house was packed with well-dressed men and women who were seemingly emotionless," Regni said. "After both of our national anthems were played, we started off with the rousing prelude to the third act of Wagner's "Lohengrin." Nothing but polite applause.

"Then the Dvorak 9th Symphony (From the New World). Same reaction. George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" nudged open the emotional gates when after the performance of the piece musical director Lorin Maazel said:

"Perhaps some day someone will write a piece entitled 'An American in Pyongyang.'" Regni said the place erupted with applause.

"For the last piece of the evening the orchestra performed a Korean folksong called 'Arirang,' the equivalent of something like our 'America the Beautiful.' The audience was quite moved and many of them were in tears.

"I thought to myself: If there was ever a peaceful moment between two enemies, this was it."

Regni, who has a long and distinguished career in classical, jazz and theater music, is a transplanted New Yorker.

"I was born in Binghamton and moved to New York City early on," Regni said. "In 1963 I was just getting started in the Big Apple and I used to sub for a guy at Radio City Music Hall, and he played sax for the Philharmonic.

"He got busy with his own recording studio and he called and asked if I wanted to sub for him with the Philharmonic which then was playing at the old Lewisohn Stadium up on 138th Street.

"It was one of conductor Seiji Ozawa's first events with the orchestra. I was scared out of my mind, but I guess I made a good impression," Regni said.

The next year they asked Regni back. His work in the performance got a good mention in the New York Times review and his career gained a foothold.

He also played for Broadway musicals, other bands and numerous other productions. And then came Richmond.

"It's 2000 and I'm sitting in the orchestra pit playing for "The Producers" and I thought to myself: 'I'm here on a Sunday afternoon, my wife is at home. She works days, I work nights. It's time to make a change.'"

His wife, Rosalie -- a native Virginian born in Portsmouth -- had been offered a job teaching at VCU. She owned some land in Goochland County and he said to her: "Let's go down there, build our dream house, you do your thing at VCU and I'll wean myself out of New York.

"Well, it's been about six years now and I'm still weaning," Regni said.

He still plays with the New York Philharmonic as well as the National Symphony Orchestra based at The Kennedy Center. And his teaching at VCU includes individual lessons and master classes.

Will he ever hear the North Korean State Symphony Orchestra play in the United States?

Perhaps the answer came from Kang Nung Su, North Korea's minister of culture, at a banquet after the concert:

"This is the first step of cultural exchange between the two countries."

Ping-Pong, anyone?
Contact Walt Amacker at (804) 649-6247 or wamacker@timesdispatch.com.