[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 24, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 FLORALBA DEL MONTE, FIRST LADY OF DOMINICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC--A SALUTE 
                          ON HER 75TH BIRTHDAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 24, 2004

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to salute Dominican concert 
pianist and piano teacher Floralba Del Monte, the ``First Lady of 
Dominican Classical Music,'' who has just celebrated her 75th birthday, 
and who this year also celebrates several professional anniversaries: 
The 55th anniversary of her debut in the United States at Carnegie 
Hall; the 50th anniversary of her graduation from the Paris 
Conservatoire; the 45th anniversary of her appointment to the Piano 
Faculty at the Santo Domingo National Conservatoire of Music; the 53rd 
anniversary of her U.S. network television debut on CBS; and the 52nd 
anniversary of her debut in Washington, DC, at the Dominican Embassy.
  Floralba Del Monte was the first Dominican concert pianist who 
performed in North America, and the first Dominican performer who 
appeared at world-famous Carnegie Hall in New York, making her 
professional and U.S. debuts there on June 14th, 1949, performing on 
this recital the U.S. premiere of the ``Sambumbia'' or Dominican 
Rhapsody for Piano by Dominican composer Juan Francisco Garcia, 
``Father of Dominican Music.'' In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, 
she was the first Dominican classical musician who professionally 
appeared at several of the most prestigious concert halls in New York 
City, including Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Steinway Hall, Kauffmann 
Auditorium and Labor Temple Concert Hall; at important venues such as 
the International School of Arts, American Women's Union, Fun & Fine 
Arts Club and the Women's Club of New York; on radio stations and 
television networks such as NBC, CBS, The Voice of America, WNYC, and 
WLIB; and at distinguished residences in New York City, performances in 
which several Dominican piano works were performed for the first time 
in the U.S. These acclaimed performances established Floralba Del Monte 
on New York's classical music scene and social circles of the 1950s, 
the first Dominican performer to make a name for herself in New York.
  Floralba Del Monte was the first Dominican performer to appear on 
U.S. network television, making her debut on CBS on October 1, 1951 as 
one of the selected artists invited to appear on the Arthur Godfrey 
Show special that inaugurated coast-to-coast television broadcasting in 
the United States. During this broadcast, she performed the world 
premiere of her own arrangement for three pianos of the popular 
``Malaguena'' by Ernesto Lecuona, starring as the First Piano of the 
Pan-American Piano Trio. This piano trio was founded by Floralba Del 
Monte in New York, and made its world debut on that historic night, 
with Del Monte, Peruvian pianist Elvira Roman and U.S. pianist Dolores 
Layko representing the three Americas--Central, South, and North.
  Floralba Del Monte was the first Dominican performer who performed in 
the Nation's Capital, making her debut there on May 16, 1952, in a gala 
recital at the Dominican Embassy, and giving another recital at the 
Pan-American Union, in which she offered the Washington, DC, premieres 
of several Dominican piano works.
  Floralba Del Monte is recognized as a pianist of exceptional 
interpretative force, holding a unique place in the Dominican Republic 
that consecrates her as one of the most revered Dominican artistic 
figures in Dominican history. In the Dominican Republic, as the concert 
pianist of most important legacy, and as the music educator of most 
influential pedagogical work, her artistic legacy that spans five 
decades of unprecedented achievements, includes: Performing the 
Dominican, North American, and European premieres of the most important 
and difficult piano works of Dominican music literature, distinguishing 
herself for her fervent patriotism, including Dominican piano works on 
her appearances in her country and abroad; being the first performer 
invited by the Dominican Government to give a concert tour in the 
country; being the mentor of the most important school of piano ever 
created in the Dominican Republic, a school comprising several 
generations of accomplished pianists, including winners of 
international music competitions, whom she taught during a 
distinguished tenure of more than 40 years as a Piano Faculty member at 
the Santo Domingo Conservatoire; and being director of the Santo 
Domingo Conservatoire, whose recently completed tenure of more than a 
decade is already regarded as the Golden Age of that preeminent 
Dominican institution. This legacy, deservingly consecrates Floralba 
Del Monte as the unrivaled ``First Lady of Dominican Classical Music.''

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