Chicago Symphony Orchestra: First Grammy Awards

Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were first recognized by the Recording Academy at the third Grammy Awards ceremony in April 1961. Fritz Reiner leading Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta won the statuette for Best Classical Performance–Orchestra, and Sviatoslav Richter—in his U.S. debut—was awarded Best Classical Performance–Concerto or Instrumental Soloist for his interpretation of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with Erich Leinsdorf conducting. Four years later, Leontyne Price won the award for Best Vocal Soloist Performance (with or without orchestra) for Falla’s El amor brujo under Reiner’s baton.