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John Donald Robb loved and composed all kinds of music, but his passion for the songs of everyday folk is for what he is most remembered. Roaming the country side of the Southwest during the ‘40’s and 50’s, Robb recorded and transcribed over 3,000 Hispano folk songs, the largest collection of its time . . . Robb was an adventurer who had traveled the world – Asia, Europe, South America- but found a niche playground for himself here in New Mexico. A well-educated, wealthy lawyer in New York City, he accepted mid-career a position at the University of New Mexico as Dean of Fine Arts in the late 40’s. Music was always his passion, and he found himself composing everything from sonatas to operas, as well as delving into cutting-edge electronic music during the second half of his life. But his greatest legacy is a vast and unique archive of Hispano folk music that he recorded in the ‘50s – 70’s, a transitory time in New Mexico when the old culture began to clash with the new.
-- Kelly Kowalski, KNME-TV-5, Emmy Award Winning Producer Director
Although I take an interest in Frank J. Oteri’s NewMusicBox reports from national and international conferences and festivals that goes beyond the strictly professional, I don’t often have occasion to attend such events myself: Most of my performances take place in Minneapolis, where I live, so my travel schedule is generally light. However, having just returned from the 40th annual John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I’m moved to look a little harder for composer gatherings in the future; what could be better than three days of listening to and talking about contemporary music with a community of brilliant artists from all over the world? Nothing, is what.
I came to the symposium for the premiere of my piece The Recording You Will Now Hear, which won the 2010 UNM John Donald Robb National Biennial Composers’ Competition, but the sparkling rendition furnished by excellent Albuquerque ensemble Chatter turned out to be only one of the week’s attractions. The list of participants is so kick-ass that I have to present it here in full: New Mexico faculty Peter Gilbert, Karola Obermüller, Richard Hermann, Andrea Polli, Falko Steinbach, and symposium organizer Chris Shultis, NYU faculty Elizabeth Hoffman and Martin Scherzinger, Russian composer Sergei Zhukov, Italian composer Barbara Rettagliatti, American “21st-century phantasmagoric rockin’ vaudeville” ensemble SkümbaagTM, and composer/pianists Chong Lim Ng and Ron Newman and composer/cellist Frank Cox (a former teacher of mine), all three performing their own work. Headlining, so to speak, was the eminent Dutch composer Konrad Boehmer, a living legend who discharged his duty as twinkle-eyed European provocateur with great relish and wisdom. Konrad may be the only person alive who has priceless anecdotes about Bruno Maderna, Chico Buarque, and Thurston Moore.
Among the cool stuff that happened during these three days: four concerts, all packed with fascinating music; a paper session on postwar experimentalism; composition seminars with UNM student composers, lectures, and a panel discussion about music and politics. Do get me started.
There are a lot of people to be thanked for this bonanza of sounds and ideas—including all the listeners, performers, guest composers, Robb trustees, and UNM faculty (and, in particular, Director Shultis)—but perhaps the person who should be singled out above all is John Donald Robb himself, whose activities as a composer and ethnomusicologist are celebrated by the symposium. Robb’s fieldwork recording southwestern folk music preserves moments that belong to the past; with the symposium, remarkably, he undertook to preserve music belonging to the future, music that didn’t yet exist. All of us who gathered in Albuquerque this past week owe him our gratitude for that.
-- Colin Holter
We watched the KNME-TV documentary about John Donald Robb today in class. In my notes, I wrote down something that was said in the documentary: `Robb negotiated other ways to live his life and do his work.' That is an inspiration to me -- to learn of a person who made his life work in a way that allowed him to both follow his bliss AND serve the world. What an expansive and interesting life, and such a rich local resource!
-- Julia Church Hoffman, Music Education Lecturer, University of New Mexico