In the 1950s Barber was engaged to conduct his own works with several symphony orchestras internationally for performances and recordings, including the BSO, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. To prepare for recordings of his "Second Symphony", "Cello Concerto" and the "Medea" ballet suite, he studied conducting with Nikolai Malko in 1951. In 1952 he was elected Vice President of the International Music Council. In 1953 his song cycle "Hermit Songs" premiered at the Library of Congress with Barber accompanying soprano Leontyne Price on the piano. Price also sang for the premiere of Barber's cantata "Prayers of Kierkegaard" with the BSO in 1954. In 1958 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his for his first opera "Vanessa" which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in January 1958 with a cast that included opera stars Eleanor Steber, Rosalind Elias, Regina Resnik, Nicolai Gedda, and Giorgio Tozzi. The Met took the production to the Salzburg Festival later that year, becoming the first American opera to be performed at that festival. Menotti wrote the libretto for both "Vanessa", and Barber's second opera "A Hand of Bridge". This latter work premiered at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoletto, Italy in 1959 with a cast that included Patricia Neway and William Lewis.