House Concurrent Resolution 7

(As Adopted by House and Senate)

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION COMMENDING THE STELLAR, ILLUSTRIOUS AND ACCOMPLISHED MUSICAL AND TEACHING CAREER OF MISSISSIPPI'S NATIVE SON, MR. T. RAY LAWRENCE, OF THE RENOWNED NEW YORK METROPOLITAN OPERA, AND EXTENDING TO HIM A ROYAL WELCOME BACK TO HIS NATIVE BIRTHPLACE OF GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI.

WHEREAS, after spending several decades in New York, in what proved to be a providential move to the Big Apple, resulting in a stellar and illustrious musical career with the renowned Metropolitan Opera, Mississippi's native son, T. Ray Lawrence, has returned to the place where his fascination with music and stroke of artistic genius all began, Gulfport, Mississippi; and

WHEREAS, growing up in Gulfport, the youngest of seven children of Percy and Zella Lawrence, T. Ray would press his ear to the radio and with child-like wonder inquire of his mother, as to how the people on the radio made their voices sound as they did; and

WHEREAS, from that moment, in what some have described as a journey significantly akin to the yellow brick road fantasy, the magical world of opera and a young man's imagination fostered dreams of the Metropolitan Opera, as the foreign sounds piercing the air from his mother's table radio, became a compelling force for Mr. Lawrence to imitate, train and learn those haunting arias; and

WHEREAS, as a child he joined the junior choir at the original and since rebuilt First Missionary Baptist Church (then Handsboro), where he walked from his nearby neighborhood to attend services, first took to the stage, calling into remembrance and executing those lessons learned from his family's down-home approach to music as they gathered around his mother playing the old upright piano; and

WHEREAS, those small steps on that fantasy road with drive and determination catapulted him years later into a full-blown career at the dreamed-about Metropolitan Opera, performing in concert with and along side such operatic luminaries as Kathleen Battle, Placido Domingo, Jessye Norman and Luciano Pavarotti, which eventually led tours with the opera company to Europe and the Far East, including performances in Frankfurt and Tokyo, of The Requiem Mass and The Damnation of Faust; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Lawrence's stardom did not come without much eager anticipation and self-reevaluation after leaving his initial audition at the Met, when he was left without any encouragement or inclination of what might be in store for him as the weeks stretched into months, many months and he heard nothing; and

WHEREAS, but as fate would have it, one day, the call came and the voice on the other end broke the silence with the question that changed the course of his future: "Are you ready to begin rehearsals?" and with it an early lesson in the major-league world of entertainment: "Don't call us, we'll call you."; and

WHEREAS, having proven himself worthy and deserving of the company's selection after honing and polishing his skills and enduring the intense and grueling all-day rehearsals in English, Italian, French, German and Russian for weeks on end, Lawrence performed works by Verdi, Puccini, Biget, Wagner, Berlioz, Gershwin and others; and

WHEREAS, his rewarding stint at the Met ran a full decade, from 1988-1998, before he retired to a less-hectic life as an oratorio and concert artist; and

WHEREAS, while a longtime resident of Hamilton Heights, Harlem, New York, Lawrence applied his bachelor and master's degrees from Tougaloo College and Michigan State University toward a teaching career in the sciences with the New York City Board of Education from which he retired; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Lawrence, who has been labeled as the "King of Harlem," attributes the legendary Dorothy Maynor, an acclaimed soprano and founding director of the Harlem School of the Arts, with refining his rich bass-baritone voice, which Bernard Waters has characterized as, "heartfelt and electric"; and

WHEREAS, Lawrence studied the interpretive art of African-American spirituals, as well, with the famed composer-arranger-conductor Hall Johnson, but it was through Maynor, that both his musical and spiritual development was meshed and nourished during his active involvement as the baritone soloist at St. James Presbyterian Church which had a congregation of thousands; and

WHEREAS, in his final farewell to the city that became his home away from home, Lawrence and friends performed to a full house of witnesses who came prepared to shout with joy at his beloved St. James, covering a wide variety of musical styles and disciplines — grand opera, musical theatre, gospel, traditional spirituals, jazz, tap dance and percussion, and appropriately concluding with "I'm On My Way to the Promised Land" from George Gershwin's opera, Porgy and Bess; and

WHEREAS, Lawrence, who credits growing up in Mississippi and his family's love of music as a defining part of his personal and professional life's success, sums up his diverse journey from the Coast to the Big Apple and back to the Coast, as a fun ride, for which he is eternally grateful; and

WHEREAS, it is with great pride that we recognize this musical legend who has served with distinction as an honorary ambassador for the State of Mississippi, bringing honor to his home community, region and state:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby commend the stellar, illustrious and accomplished musical and teaching career of the "King of Harlem," Mississippi's T. Ray Lawrence of the renowned New York Metropolitan Opera, extend to him a royal welcome back to his native birthplace of Gulfport, Mississippi, and express the best wishes of the Mississippi Legislature for continued success in the lighter years of retirement.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to Mr. T. Ray Lawrence and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.