News | Morten Lauridsen Receives National Medal of Arts
November 15, 2007
Morten Lauridsen, LAMC's distinguished Composer-in-Residence from 1994 to 2001, has received the National Medal of Arts, the highest recognition given by the National Endowment for the Arts to artists and patrons in the fields of visual, performing and literary arts. Lauridsen's lifetime achievement award recognizes his preeminent place in the field of 20th century choral music. The medal was presented November 14, 2007, by President George Bush and First Lady Laura Bush in a special White House ceremony. Lauridsen merited this honor, according to the official citation, for “his composition of radiant choral works combining musical power, beauty and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide.”
Lauridsen, Professor of Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years and a three-time alumnus (BM '66, MA '68, DMA '74), is one of only eight classical composers, including Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter, to receive the award. Last year the NEA named him an “American choral master.”
Lauridsen is currently one of the nation's most performed composers. His seven vocal cycles — Les Chansons des Roses, Mid-Winter Songs, Cuatro Canciones, A Winter Come, Madrigali: Six “FireSongs” on Renaissance Italian Poems, Nocturnes and Lux Aeterna — and his series of sacred a cappella motets (O Magnum Mysterium, Ave Maria, O Nata Lux, Ubi Caritas et Amor and Ave Dulcissima Maria) are featured regularly in concert by distinguished ensembles throughout the world.
His works have been recorded on more than 100 CDs, three of which have received Grammy nominations. One of those recordings was an all-Lauridsen CD conducted by Paul Salamunovich with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and released in 1998; it includes O Magnum Mysterium, commissioned in 1994 by LAMC Director Emeritus Marshall Rutter in honor of his wife, Terry Knowles. Lux Aeterna, commissioned by the Music Center of Los Angeles County, was given its world premiere in 1997 by the L.A. Master Chorale. The British ensemble Polyphony has also recorded several Lauridsen works under the direction of Stephen Layton, and these acclaimed CDs have been nominated for Grammy Awards®.
Lauridsen said, “I'm deeply humbled to receive the National Medal of Arts for my work as a composer. To be included among those distinguished individuals who have contributed so greatly to American culture is an enormous honor, for which I am immensely grateful.”