In this episode of Now I’ve Heard Everything, host Bill Thompson interviews Merryl Goldberg (saxophonist, educator, and activist) and Vince Houghton (NSA Intelligence Historian and author) about their remarkable book, Notes of Deception. In 1985, four young American klezmer musicians from Boston traveled into the Soviet Union on tourist visas. Their covert goal: meet with refusniks—dissidents, activists, and marginalized religious minorities denied emigration—and bring their stories, addresses, and urgent petitions back to the Western world.
To bypass strict KGB surveillance and prevent retaliation against the dissidents, Goldberg created a brilliant steganographic music cipher. By encoding Cyrillic and English letters directly into sheet music that visually resembled 12-tone modern classical compositions (such as Bartók or Schoenberg), the team successfully smuggled volumes of vital human rights intelligence past Soviet border control right under the noses of the KGB.
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the covert musical operation
02:06 What is a refusnik and why they sought to leave the USSR
03:54 The idea of using music as a secret code
06:13 Creating and disguising the cipher in musical notation
07:57 The security and risks of embedding messages in music
10:00 The story of the Phantom Orchestra and their mission 1
1:55 The role of the KGB and how the cipher was hidden
14:00 The emotional impact and bravery of the musicians
16:00 Post-mission reflections and the fate of refusniks
18:05 The debate over publicity and safety for refusniks
20:07 The influence of family history and activism
21:47 The story of Pavel and the legacy of the mission
24:07 The mysterious Kevin, the KGB officer
26:10 The enduring importance of trust and human connection
28:01 Conclusion and the legacy of covert art in espionage
Conclusion and the legacy of covert art in espionage
Guest Information
Merryl Goldberg & Vince Houghton
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Dr. Vince Houghton
National cryptologic Museum
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