[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 85 (Thursday, June 29, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 A TRIBUTE TO CONANT HALSEY FOR 47 YEARS OF MUSICAL EXCELLENCE AT THE 
                             REDLANDS BOWL

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JERRY LEWIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 28, 2000

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to call your 
attention to nearly five decades of dedication to music and love of 
community by Mr. Conant K. Halsey, who has guided the Summer Music 
Festival of the Redlands Bowl through decades when many local concert 
series declined--and has helped make it into a regional event attended 
by 100,000 people each year.
  The Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival was created in 1924 by 
founder Grace Stewart Mullen, and is the nation's oldest continuing 
outdoor concert series that has never charged admission. Thanks in 
large part to the financial expertise of Conant Halsey, the festival 
has also never asked for government funding for operations--it has 
survived and prospered entirely on the donations and volunteer work 
from those who love good music in the surrounding communities.
  Halsey, a stockbroker who came West for his health, joined the board 
of the Redlands Community Music Association in 1953, and took over as 
chairman when Grace Mullen died in 1967. Under his guidance, the 
association created an endowment fund that is now self-sustaining--the 
festival only uses income, not principal. When he joined the board, the 
annual budget was $50,000--now it is $317,000.
  In a white dinner jacket and bow tie, Conant Halsey has been a 
fixture at many of the 940 concerts he has helped stage in the past 47 
years. He has made the announcements, led children in the Pledge of 
Allegiance, and greeted visitors from other states and foreign 
countries.
  Mr. Chairman, the City of Redlands is known for its grace and 
appreciation of culture in no small part because of the continuing 
success of the Redlands Bowl summer concerts. After 47 years of helping 
guide that dedication to excellent music, Conant Halsey is retiring 
from the board on June 30 at the bowl's first concert of the 21st 
Century. I ask you and my colleagues to please join me in offering our 
congratulations on this tremendous accomplishment, and wish Mr. Halsey 
well in years to come.

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