The Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra (GNOYO), which offers talented young people of all economic circumstances musical training and performance opportunities, was nationally recognized as one of 17 youth arts and humanities programs to receive 2006 Coming Up Taller Awards. Youth and adult representatives of the program accepted the $10,000 award from First Lady Laura Bush at a January 22nd White House ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Coming Up Taller is an initiative of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH). The President's Committee partners with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to administer the program, which was founded in 1998.

The Coming Up Taller Awards recognize and support outstanding community arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of America's young people, and provide them with new learning opportunities and a chance to contribute to their communities. The awards also highlight the contributions that historians, scholars, librarians and visual and performing arts make to families and communities by mentoring children. More than 250 nominations were received by the program in 2006.

Pictured here are NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, Marianna Roll of the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra youth participant Laura Cain, and Mrs. Laura Bush, Honorary Chairman of the PCAH.