According to the AP, Western music was banned from Iran after the Islamist revolution of 1979, but began to return in the 1980s, and became omnipresent in the late 1990s under president Mohammed Khatami, a reformer.

During the cultural thaw, Ali Rahbari, a Vienna-trained conductor, returned to lead the Tehran Symphony. But he resigned in November to protest low pay for his orchestra's musicians. Performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony just before his departure prompted anger from conservatives, the AP says.

Ahmadinejad, a hardliner, has made a series of confrontational statements since taking office in August, declaring at one point that Israel should be "wiped off the map."