[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 19 (Tuesday, January 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1798-S1799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO MUSICIAN VERNON RAINES

  Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, conductor Vernon Raines is one of those 
rare individuals who has been truly blessed with a divine talent for 
music, and who has worked effortlessly to spread musical enlightenment 
to the citizens of south Alabama. It is as if the music has always been 
in his heart, as if it were his destiny.
  At the age of 6, Vernon had already written his first violin 
composition, and had begun to play the piano by ear. By the time he was 
18, he had become the musical director of the Mobile Chamber Orchestra 
and had begun a career that included over 28 years as conductor and 
musical director of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. He also 
[[Page S1799]] served for 3 years as the conductor of the University of 
Southern Mississippi symphony, opera, and ballet; and was the associate 
professor of music and the chairman of the music department at 
Livingston University, in Livingston, Alabama for nearly 8 years.
  In addition, Mr. Raines was an organizer of the Mobile Chamber 
Orchestra, was a key facilitator of the Mobile Symphonic Society, and 
served as the guest conductor of the Kwangju Philharmonic of Korea in 
1987. He has also performed many times on public radio and television, 
and has made five guest appearances at the Mobile Opera Guild Workshop.
  Mr. Raines graduated from Murphy High School in Mobile, and received 
his bachelor of music degree from the University of Alabama. He then 
went on to receive his master of music degree from Florida State 
University, studied at the American Symphony Orchestra League's Eastern 
Institute of Orchestral Studies, and studied privately under such noted 
conductors as Leo Mueller and Ernst von Dohnanyi.
  It is my sincere pleasure and honor to commend and congratulate Mr. 
Vernon Raines on his outstanding career as a musician and conductor. He 
is truly a guiding force in the Greater Gulf Coast musical scene, and 
is an inspiration to the young musicians of Alabama. May he continue to 
enlighten the hearts of Alabamians with the beautiful music of our 
past.


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