Iran Orchestra Finale Rings of Hard-Line Pressure

AHRAM ONLINE
By Associated Press

IRAN---It was a VIP audience for what was likely the last performance of the venerable Tehran Symphony Orchestra. Watching from the front row in late August was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in what was seen as an endorsement from the ruling theocracy, which once tried to stamp out all music as a violation of Islamic values. Just two months later, the musicians are out of work, funding has run dry and a nearly 80-year-old institution that survived wars, coups and the 1979 Islamic Revolution was declared Tuesday in an apparently irreversible "coma" by media. Arsalan Kamkar, a violinist in the orchestra, told The Associated Press on Monday that "only seven or eight members of the orchestra have valid contracts. [link]