UNM John Donald Robb Composer's Symposium

 

2009 Composer's Symposium


George LewisMarch 29 - April 1, 2009
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The 2009 John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium will feature MacArthur fellow and Columbia University Professor of Music, George Lewis, a composer/performer with a long history of prominence in the experimental music tradition. That history includes his membership in the famed Chicago musician's cooperative, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), an organization about which Lewis has recently completed the definitive history, "A Power Greater Than Ourselves" (University of Chicago Press). His appearance at the Symposium is being co-sponsored by the Outpost Performance Space where Lewis and an ensemble featuring Nicole Mitchell and Hamid Drake will give the Opening Concert on Sunday, March 29.

Monday, March 30, the Concert in UNM's Popejoy Hall will include the world premiere of Christopher Shultis' Openings by the UNM Wind Symphony and a performance of John Donald Robb's Viola Concerto by soloist Kim Fredenburgh with the orchestral ensemble "Chatter" conducted by David Felberg. The Symposium's "ensemble in residence", the Hoffman-Goldstein Piano-Percussion Duo, will be featured in Concert on Tuesday, March 31. Wednesday April 1, will present a day of concert performances guest curated by composer Raven Chacon emphasizing radically new developments in contemporary music.

In addition, the composition selected for the biennial UNM Robb Trust Composers' Competition by an international panel of judges, Julio Estrada, Composer and Research Professor, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico; Robert Morris, Composer and Research Professor of Music, Eastman School of Music, NY, USA; and Barbara Rettagliati, Composer and Professor of Composition, Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Luigi Cherubini", Florence, Italy, will be performed at the 2009 Composers' Symposium. The competition awards $3,500 for the winning composition which will be announced after December 31, 2008.

History

In 1972, Dr. William Wood was hired as Composer-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Theory and Composition. That year, his former teacher Norman Lockwood was invited to participate in the first annual UNM Composers' Symposium, which also featured performance of works by UNM student composers.

The event has continued annually since then, making it one of the longest on-going festivals of new music in the world, and one that now has attained a regional, national and international reputation. During the 1990s, the symposium was renamed and became the John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium, in honor of Dr. Robb, who served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts from 1942 to 1957.

Honored guests have included:

  • Ned Rorem
  • George Crumb
  • Vincent Persichetti
  • Max Schubel
  • Karel Husa
  • Gunther Schuller
  • David Raksin
  • Lukas Foss
  • George Rochberg
  • Thea Musgrave
  • Ernst Krenek
  • David Baker
  • Lou Harrison
  • John Harbison
  • Milton Babbitt
  
  • Christian Wolff
  • James Tenney
  • John Tower
  • Alan Hovhaness
  • Nicholaw Maw
  • Libby Larson
  • Julio Estrada
  • Pauline Oliveros
  • Anthony Braxton
  • Robert Cogan
  • Pozzi Escot
  • Gordon Getty
  • John Cage


In 1989, the Symposium, as part of the university's centennial, honored forty of the Music Department's alumni and friends, with special honors accorded to John Donald Robb, John Lewis and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Colgrass. Special themes and subjects have been featured during some years, including film music (with Joji Yuasa as guest composer), music and technology (Joan La Barbara and Morton Subotnick), and music theory and jazz (Maria Schneider).


Recent Symposiums


2008 Symposium   37th Annual Composers' Symposium Program (March/April, 2008) (PDF, 984KB)
2007 Symposium   36th Annual Composers' Symposium Program (March, 2007) (PDF, 4.28 MB)
2006 Symposium   35th Annual Composers' Symposium Program (April, 2006) (PDF, 1.89MB)