Milan mayor Letizia Moratti reportedly proposed the concert during a recent visit to New York to show solidarity with the city.

The La Scala Philharmonic tour, which begins October 6, also includes performances in Toronto, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The program, to be conducted by Riccardo Chailly, includes works by Wagner, sung by tenor Ben Heppner, as well as pieces by Strauss and Ravel.

The tour will be a tribute to Arturo Toscanini, who led a 16-week, 59-city tour of North America with the La Scala Orchestra in 1920; this was the first international tour of an Italian orchestra.

Earlier this year, another Milan orchestra undertook an extensive U.S. tour in honor of the legendary maestro and those 1920 concerts: the new Symphonica Toscanini, founded in 2006 and directed by Lorin Maazel. On January 16, the 50th anniversary of Toscanini's death, the Symphonica Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic, both under Maazel's baton, gave a joint concert dedicated to the legendary conductor.