[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8795]
[From the U.S. 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.

                          ____________________