[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15760]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE SANTA ROSA SYMPHONY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 28, 2012

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the Santa Rosa Symphony on 
the occasion of its orchestral opening of the Green Music Center. The 
Green Music Center is a recently-completed music and art venue on the 
campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. Named 
after Donald and Maureen Green, it is comprised of the Joan and Sanford 
I. Weill Hall and the Schroeder Recital Hall as well as a multi-use 
education facility and an elegant hospitality center. The symphony made 
its debut performance as Resident Orchestra of the Green Music Center 
on September 30, 2012.
  In 1998, the Board of Directors of the Santa Rosa Symphony marked a 
new era by joining Sonoma State University to raise funds for a new 
concert hall. Although this was no easy task, persistence paid off. 
Donald Green has been the spirit of the project; start-up financial 
support and leadership from Don and his wife Maureen, the vision of 
Sonoma State President Ruben Arminana, and the assistance of Sandy and 
Joan Weill plus hundreds of supporters of the Santa Rosa Symphony has 
made the Center a reality. With this project, the symphony enhances its 
dream of being one of the leading regional symphony orchestras in 
America.
  Fourteen years later, the completion of the Green Music Center and 
Weill Hall is an impressive and important step towards fulfilling that 
vision. On September 30th, the Santa Rosa Symphony celebrated 85 years 
of music and stepped over the threshold of its new home at the Green 
Music Center. The symphony also recognized three talented individuals 
who helped develop and usher in this new era: Conductor Emeritus 
Corrick Brown, Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane and current Music 
Director Bruno Ferrandis.
  The first performance was mesmerizing as Maestro Brown conducted 
Beethoven's overture, Consecration of the House as an appropriate 
beginning in the acoustically-superb Weill Hall, and Maestro Ferrandis 
took the podium for the remainder of the program. It included Ravel's 
Bolero, Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto performed by Kahane, 
Copland's great Canticle of Freedom, featuring the 100-voice Symphony 
Honor Choir, and ended with three encores.
  To mark this long-awaited moment, the Symphony also commissioned an 
orchestral work. by Petaluma resident and critically-acclaimed 
contemporary composer Nolan Gasser. His Sonoma Overture evoked the 
natural beauty of Sonoma County and recognized the energy and dynamism 
of its cities, industries and people.
  This was truly a transformative moment that seldom is afforded any 
American orchestra--to call a world class concert hall its home, 
rivaling the Vienna Philharmonic's Musikverein concert hall and the 
Boston Symphony's Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.
  In addition to being a home for the symphony, the Center will serve 
as a venue to showcase excellent music from around the Bay Area and 
beyond. In fact, just a day before the symphony's opening performance, 
renowned Chinese pianist Lang Lang dazzled at the Green Music Center's 
grand opening with a one-night-only recital. And only a week later, on 
October 6th, Music Director Bruno Ferrandis partnered with the Kronos 
Quartet to perform Mozart's Overture to The Magic Flute, Mahler's 
Symphony No. I, Titan, and the world premiere of Concerto for String 
Quartet, Orchestra and Electronics, The Last Internal Combustion Engine 
by composer-in-residence Edmund Campion.
  Mr. Speaker, we congratulate the Santa Rosa Symphony for all its hard 
work. Truly a new dawn is breaking for this orchestra and for Sonoma 
County that will both invite and challenge them to new heights of 
artistic excellence and community engagement.

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