[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 10 (Friday, January 16, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RECOGNIZING MARILYN HORNE ON THE OCCASION OF HER 75TH BIRTHDAY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MIKE THOMPSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 16, 2009

  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay 
tribute to a treasure of American cultural life and music, Marilyn 
Horne who is celebrating her 75th birthday. Ms. Horne has had a long 
and distinguished career that has spanned the globe and endeared her to 
music-lovers everywhere.
  Ms. Horne has always demonstrated a passion for music, first 
performing publicly at the age of 2. After studying voice and song/
recital works at the University of Southern California, she has gone on 
to perform in more than 1300 recitals, made over 100 recordings and 
received three Grammy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award 
in 1989. She has lent her mezzo-soprano voice to some of the most 
challenging roles in music and has been a fixture in the world of 
classical music for the last four decades.
  She has also shown a commitment to sharing her passion with the next 
generation of vocalists through her work as a visiting professor at 
some of the Nation's great music programs and as director of the Voice 
Program at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, a program 
she has led since 1997. When Ms. Horne became concerned about the 
diminishing recital opportunities for promising young vocalists, she 
founded the Marilyn Horne Foundation in 1993 to ensure that young 
singers would continue to have the opportunity to excel and to preserve 
vocal recital as a treasured and living art form in the United States. 
Since its inception, the Foundation has reached over 55,551 children 
via 649 school programs, supported 262 recitals of promising young 
vocalists in 26 States, and helped to share the gifts of these young 
people with millions of others by promoting radio broadcasts of these 
recitals. Many of the foundation's alumni can now be seen performing on 
some of opera's most famous stages, including Carnegie Hall, The Met 
and the New York City Opera.
  The honors that Ms. Horne has received in her lifetime are too 
numerous to list here. But, most prominent among them are the National 
Medal of the Arts in 1992, being named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 
1995, and being inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of 
Fame. She has also attracted international acclaim and her worldwide 
honors include the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters from 
France's Ministry of Culture, Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica 
Italiana, and the Fidelio Gold Medal from the International Association 
of Opera Directors. She was also the inaugural winner of Italy's 
Rossini Medaglia d'Oro, which was created especially to recognize her 
contribution to reviving many of Rossini's greatest operas.
  Madam Speaker, it is appropriate at this time that we honor Marilyn 
Horne for her lifetime of achievements, her passion for music, and her 
dedication to future generations of vocalists. We wish her the best of 
luck in her continuing work, and I am so honored to call her my friend.