[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 89 (Thursday, June 4, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO CARL ST. CLAIR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MIMI WALTERS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 4, 2015

  Mrs. MIMI WALTERS of California. Mr. Speaker, today I wish to honor 
and celebrate Carl St. Clair's 25th Anniversary as the Music Director 
at Orange County's Pacific Symphony.
   Under Carl St. Clair's brilliant leadership, Pacific Symphony has 
become the largest professional symphony orchestra formed in the past 
fifty years. Through St. Clair's outstanding vision, sensitivity, and 
dynamic leadership, Pacific Symphony has developed programming that has 
bridged different cultures, engaged creative voices, and opened the 
door of great music for all.
   St. Clair's artistic vision and standards have generated 
enthusiastic audiences locally and internationally. In 2006, he led the 
Symphony on its first European tour--nine cities in three countries 
playing before capacity houses and receiving extraordinary reviews. His 
commitment to new music has been demonstrated locally and admired 
nationally. The Pacific Symphony's American Composers' Festival has 
celebrated leading composers annually for fifteen years; the Symphony 
has won two ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, and has released 
eleven recordings--primarily the music of American composers. St. Clair 
has produced numerous thematic festivals and fostered the return of 
professional opera to Orange County. He has also developed continuing 
programmatic relationships with a number of local universities, 
including USC, Chapman University, and UC-Irvine.
   St. Clair is actively involved in both the conception and 
implementation of Pacific Symphony's education and outreach programs. 
The orchestra produces more than twenty distinct education and outreach 
programs--several garnered national attention and are widely 
replicated.
   Maestro St. Clair has proclaimed that ``Music is a birthright,'' and 
has supported that vision with complementary activities that are 
accessible to the entire community.
   Through HEARTSTRINGS, the Symphony provides music to more than 
twenty different agencies that range from homeless shelters and after 
school youth-mentoring clubs to the Center for Autism and 
Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Age Well Senior Services. This is 
accomplished through individual and small group visits to agency sites 
as well as providing available tickets for major performances. In 
total, forty-four percent of the Pacific Symphony's annual audiences 
heard the orchestra at no cost last season. Finally, in perhaps the 
greatest salute to Maestro St. Clair's musical leadership, fully one-
third of Pacific Symphony musicians (37 in number) have tenures with 
the orchestra that equal or exceed his twenty-five years.
   From the highest artistic standards to the breadth of community 
outreach and service, Carl St. Clair is a vital part of the distinctive 
quality of life we enjoy in Orange County and Southern California. I 
thank him for his leadership and for enriching the lives of children 
and adults throughout the Southern California region, the nation, and 
the world.

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