[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 7 (Thursday, January 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        TRIBUTE TO EDUARDO MATA

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to mourn the passing of 
the greatest Mexican conductor of recent years, who was a fixture in 
the culture of Dallas since 1977.
  Eduardo Mata was born in Mexico City in the 1940's, studied at the 
Mexican National Conservatory, and won a Koussevitzky Fellowship to 
study at Tanglewood with Max Rudolf, Erich Leinsdorf, and Gunther 
Schuller. He led several orchestras before becoming music director of 
the Dallas Symphony in 1977. He has been beloved throughout north Texas 
ever since, because he brought the symphony into the first rank of 
American orchestras.
  He was also important to the musical life of our Nation because he 
championed a number of Latin American composers whose works had been 
neglected in the United States. He made a point of programming their 
works in concerts around the country and recorded many of them in 
Caracas with the distinguished Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra.
  Mr. Mata died recently when his plane crashed in Mexico, but his 
recordings and performances remain dear to all who heard them.
  Mr. President, Texans will miss his lively presence at the podium of 
the wonderful Morton Meyerson concert hall, but we celebrate the hall 
itself, which Mata encouraged Dallas to build. We will also continue to 
enjoy the orchestra he built as it fills that hall with music from 
every continent.


                          ____________________