The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra sent a representative to Iran this week as part of an exploratory trip aimed at arranging the first official U.S. orchestra concert in Iran since the fall of the Shah.
The concert tour is being considered for later this year, and the PSO, the American Middle East Institute (AMEI), Iranian officials, and the U.S. State Department are hammering out details, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported in January.
Representatives for the PSO and AMEI visited the Islamic Republic on a preliminary trip on Sunday, the groups confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.
If the effort moves forward, the Pittsburgh Symphony would be the first U.S. orchestra to tour Iran since the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1967, over a decade before the Islamic Revolution.
The potential diplomatic overture—which would need official approval from the State Department, the PSO said—comes during an effort by the Obama administration to rebuild relations with Tehran on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations.
A spokesperson for the PSO stressed that talks are in the very early stages and declined to comment on the orchestra’s interactions with the State Department.
"We have a representative who is there [in Iran], it is strictly exploratory," said Louise Sciannameo, Vice President of Public Affairs for the PSO.
A State Department spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that the agency was "aware of the PSO's plans and have been in touch with them."
"They still have a lot of details to work out, but we're going to stay in close touch with them as this goes forward," Gregg Sullivan, a State Department senior adviser on Iran, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in January.
The visit would not be the first time a U.S. orchestra has toured an openly adversarial country. The New York Philharmonic was heavily criticized for visiting Pyongyang in 2007 to play for the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il.
The PSO’s Iranian outreach could draw similar controversy. A source close to the Pittsburgh Symphony said donors have privately expressed concerns about the proposal.
Sciannameo said that she could not comment on the internal response from donors.
She also said such a trip could not take place without official sponsorship from the State Department and a formal invitation from the Iranian government.
"Everything is really hypothetical at this point in time," said Sciannameo. "We’ve got many hurdles to cross here."