[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 129 (Thursday, September 23, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1717-E1718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO CHARLES ANSBACHER

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 23, 2010

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
pay tribute to an admirable leader and beloved friend's husband, 
Charles Ansbacher. His life exemplifies an attainable American dream. 
Mr. Ansbacher was a firm believer in the power of music to lift 
individual spirits. For this, I commend his legacy.
  Mr. Ansbacher was born in Providence and grew up in Vermont. His 
parents, noted psychologists Drs. Heinz Ludwig and Rowena Ripin 
Ansbacher, encouraged his study by sending him to Greenwood Music Camp 
and Tanglewood. He later majored in physics at Brown University but 
switched to music after creating a successful chamber orchestra with 
his classmates. He studied music at the University of Cincinnati in 
Ohio and at the Mozarteum in Austria.
  His faith in music's ability to forge and repair a community led him 
to guest conduct far outside the typical circuit. He worked with 
orchestras in Beirut, Jerusalem, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Macedonia, 
Moldova, and Uzbekistan and

[[Page E1718]]

held positions with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Bishkek 
Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra of Kyrgyzstan, and the Sarajevo 
Philharmonic. He was the first American to conduct the Vietnam National 
Symphony.
  When he founded his orchestra in 2000, Mr. Ansbacher placed the word 
``landmarks'' in its title to signal his belief in the connection 
between his music and the locations where it was created. During that 
period he also developed his public policy interests, serving as a 
White House Fellow and co-chairing a U.S. Department of Transportation 
task force that advocated for the use of federal funds to build a 
presence for the arts within the mass transit system. As he was 
involved with his work, he met my dear friend, Swanee Hunt, whom he 
later married and accompanied to Vienna when she was appointed U.S. 
ambassador to Austria. There he worked as a guest conductor, and began 
his relationship with the Sarajevo Philharmonic.
  Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Ansbacher's wife of 25 years, said: 
``Concerts, audience members, and passengers can be counted, but the 
impact of his ideas is incalculable. He imagined opportunities where 
others saw barriers. How many of us have dreamed bolder dreams, reached 
unimaginably farther, because of his stubborn encouragement and 
prodding? Our work is an extension of his work--no, of his life.''
  Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Thirtieth District of Texas and North 
Texas community, I am honored to commend the life of an astounding man, 
Charles Ansbacher.

                          ____________________