Last week the New York Philharmonic announced that it had been forced to cancel its planned concert in Cuba at the end of October. Although the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) granted licenses to let the instrumentalists travel to Cuba, it declined to permit the orchestra’s patrons who were footing the bill for the trip to tag along.

This decision seems at odds with current initiatives by the White House to ease travel restrictions to Cuba. It now appears that the outcome was the handiwork of New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, who threatened to vote against health reform if a single note of Gershwin was heard in a Havana concert hall. Menendez was reportedly infuriated by the recent success of a concert by a Colombian pop-star in Cuba, and didn’t want such a horrifying event to recur if the New York orchestra traveled to the island. Apparently for every note of Beethoven that a Cuban hears, Raúl Castro gets another week in office and Fidel draws another thousand breaths.

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