LAWRENCE SMITH TO RECORD IN SOVIET UNION

Lawrence Leighton Smith, music director of the Louisville Orchestra and conductor at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, will become the first American conductor to record in the Soviet Union when he performs a series of Russian works with the Moscow Philharmonic in August.

Smith was one of many applicants for the job and said he got the opportunity to go when others had to pull out.

Smith will arrive in Moscow on Aug. 12 for a week of rehearsals before recording begins. The record will be released on the Sheffield Lab Record Co. label.

Smith’s trip to the Soviet Union was the brainchild of Sheffield vice president Lincoln Mayorga, who was looking for ways to entice Eastern European orchestras to record for his label. He presented the idea to the Moscow Philharmonic 18 months ago and it eventually agreed to participate.