[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 110 (Thursday, July 21, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1379]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN HONOR OF MARIN ALSOP

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 21, 2011

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Maestra Marin Alsop, 
whose visionary and charismatic leadership has made the Cabrillo 
Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California our nation's 
global leader in the creation and presentation of contemporary music 
for orchestra.
  Born in New York City, Marin Alsop attended Yale University and 
received her Master's Degree from The Juilliard School and was the 
first woman to be awarded the Koussevitsky Conducting Prize from the 
Tanglewood Music Center where she became a protege of Leonard 
Bernstein. She has gone on to make history as the first woman to lead a 
major American orchestra; the first conductor to receive a MacArthur 
Foundation Fellowship (``genius award''); and the first artist to win 
both Gramophone's Artist of the Year and the Royal Philharmonic 
Society's Conductor's Award in the same season. Other prizes include a 
European Women of Achievement Award, a Classical BRIT Award for Best 
Female Artist, the Royal Philharmonic Society's BBC Radio 3 Listeners 
Award, Musical America's Conductor of the Year, and induction as a 
fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  Described by the New York Times as ``a conductor with a vision of 
what an American orchestra could be in the 21st century,'' Marin Alsop 
has made Cabrillo a place where composers, musicians, audiences, and 
the community interact, and where everyone contributes to the process 
of modern symphonic music making. By the force of her genius and her 
genuineness, the Festival has become a creative gathering like none 
other in the world.
  A Music Director of vision and distinction who passionately believes 
that ``music has the power to change lives,'' Marin Alsop has made the 
Festival a creative force on the international stage. No longer just a 
presenter of new works, Cabrillo is now an originator of new works, 
with more and more composers choosing the Festival for the first 
performance of their newest works. This season there will be a historic 
seven world premieres, each written to celebrate her special 20th 
anniversary season.
  Mr. Speaker, for all that she has done for living composers and the 
future of symphonic music as a vibrant American art form, and for all 
that she will undoubtedly achieve in the years ahead, I extend my most 
sincere appreciation and congratulations to Marin Alsop on the occasion 
of her 20th anniversary as music director of the Cabrillo Festival of 
Contemporary Music.

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