The Louisville Orchestra and Music Director Lawrence Leighton Smith recently received three national honors: the 1990 Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center; a Grammy nomination; and National Public Radio's Lucien Wulsin Award.
The Letter of Distinction was for "Significant Contribution to the Field of American Contemporary Music," and was received at an awards ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York. It was awarded to Smith and the Orchestra.
The Grammy nomination, in the "Outstanding New Classical Compositions" category, is for Symphony No. 2, "Cello Symphony,"By Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, as performed by the Louisville Orchestra, Lawrence Leighton Smith conducting, on First Edition Recordings. (The LO did not win the Grammy.)
NPR gave the LO the Lucien Wulsin Award for the "Outstanding Broadcast of a Nationally Recognized Large Ensemble on Performance Today." The award was for the Halloween 1990 broadcast of Three Hallucinations for Orchestra by John Corigliano.