The Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra played its first significant performance in years Wednesday in Baghdad, U.N. officials said.

More than 400 people attended the concert, which was meant to promote unity and dialogue, the officials said in a news release. The performance, which was organized by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, also was broadcast live on Iraqi television.

The concert included both Iraqi and classical pieces. Iraqi cellist and orchestra director Karim Wasfi shared the conducting duties with international conductor Oliver Gilmour.

Without culture a country will literally pack up, said Gilmour, the first guest conductor to be invited since before United States-led forces invaded in 2003.

He said the concert not only was a source of Iraqi pride but engenders a feeling of quasi-normality. He also noted the orchestra's members, who represent different sects and ethnicities, faced danger to rehearse.

In many ways what they do is inspirational and it illustrates, I think, their indomitable spirit and the power of music, he said.

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