 When Raven Chacon debuted Tiguex (Score for the City of Albuquerque) on September 27, 2025, echoes of John Donald Robb and the Robb Musical Trust were heard in the ambitious composition that was performed in 20 movements across the city from sunrise to sunset. Tiguex’s third movement, “The Greeters,” features three songs from Robb’s field recordings, and Trust Chair Robert Lucero’s UNM mariachi students perform in the tenth movement, “The Balladeers.” Chacon, who earned a BA in music from UNM, acknowledges decades of interest in Robb’s music and UNM archives and the Robb Trust Composers’ Symposium. The day-long composition was live-streamed on KUNM and scores of UNM music students and faculty were among the participants. Details and locations. Chacon (spiderwebinthesky.com) received the 2025 Robb Award during the Trust’s annual ¡Música del Corazón! celebration of New Mexico music on November 16 at Keller Hall. Learn more about the UNM CSWR Robb Musical Archives. Here's an interview with Raven and Robb Trust board member Nancy Harbert, recorded on the Keller Hall stage, October 2025. And here's a video clip of the UNM Mariachi performing in Chacon's Tiguex, recorded by their Director, Robert Lucero, Jr. Chacon shares, "The transcriptive work of John Donald Robb has been influential to my practice, and my understanding of the extended musical traditions of our home. Robb's own electronic music has also been a fascinating source for me, and the work of the Robb Trust, particularly the Composers' Symposiums, have been an important part of my life (I first attended in 1989 when John Cage was the guest)." Experience a groundbreaking sonic journey with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, MacArthur fellow, and UNM Music Composition Alumnus Raven Chacon as he premieres Tiguex (Score for the City of Albuquerque) on September 27, 2025. This large-scale composition unfolds across the city in twenty overlapping movements, each performed in a location mapped by Chacon’s lithographic score done at Tamarind Institute. Inspired by the landscapes and histories of the central Rio Grande valley, Tiguex invites you to hear Albuquerque in a whole new way—from volcanoes to railroads, pueblos to Route 66. Don’t miss this one-day-only event that transforms the city into a living, breathing concert hall. The UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust is a proud sponsor of Tiguex. Below are photos of several movements from Chacon's Tiguex by Robb Trust board member Nancy Harbert. 2024-2025 Symposium Series9/9/2025 2024 Friday 30 August 11:00am John Link composer Location: CFA Room 1111 Program: composer talk Friday 6 September 11:00am Jeffrey Gavett composer, baritone Location: CFA Room 1111 Program: composer talk Friday 13 September 11:00am Agustín Castilla-Ávila composer, guitarist, author, artistic researcher Location: CFA Room 1111 Program: NEVERENDINGARTIST: A proposal for a transdisciplinary classification  Sérgio Azevedo Visiting Artist Residency Thursday 19 September 9:30am Sérgio Azevedo composer Location: CFA Room 2100 Program: lecture on Portuguese music Wednesday 25 September 7:30-9pm WORLD PREMIERE ...Contempla, alma, y considera double concerto for oboe and viola Sérgio Azevedo composer Kevin Vigneau oboe Kimberly Fredenburgh viola Sebastián Serrano-Ayala conductor UNM Symphony Orchestra Location: Popejoy Hall Tickets: $15 adult, $10 senior, $5 student general admission, purchase tickets Also on the program: Bolero Maurice Ravel, Capriccio español Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Huapango José Pablo Moncayo The Robb Trust is a proud underwriter of the Azevedo double concerto commission.  Thursday 26 September 2pm Sérgio Azevedo composer, pianist Location: Keller Hall Program: Azevedo performs Azevedo, solo piano recital Friday 27 September 11:00am Sérgio Azevedo composer Location: CFA Room 1111 Program: artist talk and composition master class with UNM composition students line upon line artist residency Thursday 3 October 6:30pm line upon line percussion ensemble Location: CFA Room B120 Program: masterclass Friday 4 October 11:00am line upon line percussion ensemble Location: CFA Room 1111 Program: commissioning and collaboration talk  Friday 18 October 11:00am Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy C. Takach a cappella band Nation Location: CFA Room 1111 Program: composers talk Friday 1 November 10:30am Rachel Lee Priday violin Location: CFA Room 1106 Program: string masterclass & commissioning talk Friday 15 November 11:00am Thokozani Ndumiso Mhlambi musician, songwriter, cultural pioneer Location: CFA Room 1106 Program: composer talk Friday 22 November 10:30am Linda Antas composer, art technologist, flutist, educator Location: CFA Room 1106 Program: composer talk  2025 Peter Ko Contemporary Cello Residency Thursday 30 January 11:00am Peter Ko cello Location: tba Program: master class with UNM graduate string quartet Friday 31 January 11:00am Peter Ko cello Location: CFA 1111 Program: master class with UNM composition students As a performer, his training and projects have taken him across the USA, Mexico, Canada, and Europe, performing in festivals such as soundSCAPE, SICPP, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the Green Box Arts Festival, and Neofonía Festival de Música Nueva Ensenada. Peter currently serves as principal cellist for the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and has worked with the Palimpsest and Renga ensembles, Yarn/Wire, Project [BLANK], and San Diego New Music. Peter has received his significant musical training from Charles Curtis, Vernon Regehr, Ron Leonard, Ashley Walters, and Mario Ramirez. He has also received coaching from many other notable artists, including Lynn Harrell, Felix Fan, Mark Fewer, Adrian Brendel, the Gryphon Trio, and the Danish String Quartet. He holds a MMus from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a BA from University of California, San Diego. He is currently a DMA Candidate in Contemporary Music Performance at UC San Diego.  Tuesday 4 February 5:30pm Music for Flute & Live Electronics Jesse Tatum flute new works by Feng, Arellano, Falk, De León-Ortiz, Vaagen & electronic works of John Donald Robb UNM Arts Lab 131 Pine Street NE @Central & University Albuquerque, NM 87106 (505) 277-2253 Directions Jesse Tatum is a relentless musician, performing chamber music, orchestral music, operas, and solo works. They are Principal Flute of The Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Opera Southwest Orchestra, and a Principal Player at Chatter, where she has performed well over a decade of adventurous chamber music with the innovative Albuquerque based chamber ensemble. Additionally, Jesse has performed many seasons with The Santa Fe Opera and the New Mexico Philharmonic. Tatum is described as “reliably excellent” (Santa Fe New Mexican), “The principal flutist Jesse is just a rock star” (Ryan McAdams, conductor), “She is the music of the universe and cannot be contained” (Meow Wolf). Pasatiempo called her an “overachiever” in their profile of the flutist. Recognized for their authentic, fearless performances, Jesse was featured on KHFM’s 10 at 10 in 2024 with a program of solo works for flute. In 2022, Jesse performed as a concerto soloist with The Santa Fe Symphony, the New Mexico Philharmonic, Chatter, and Santa Fe Pro Musica. An enthusiast of the intersection of visual and musical performance art, they were a regularly featured performer from 2017-2020 at the trailblazing Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. In spring 2023, Tatum performed on a decommissioned rifle for Disarm Flute by Pedro Reyes at SITE Santa Fe. Jesse performed a show of contemporary works for solo flute as FluTeBot in conjunction with the 2018 exhibition Patrick Nagatani: Excavations: Buried Cars and Other Stories. Jesse was a prizewinner at the Myrna Brown Artist Competition. She has performed at the Currents International New Media Festival and appeared as a soloist with the Albuquerque Philharmonic. Jesse has collaborated with many composers and participated in numerous world, US, and New Mexico premieres of solo, chamber, orchestra and opera works. In 2019 Jesse co-created the Santa Fe Symphony’s Strata series and curated chamber concerts in collaboration with various organizations in Santa Fe. Tatum was a co-curator for Santa Fe Symphony’s “Music of the Multiverse,” a highly lauded collaboration with Meow Wolf in 2021. They have been a Featured Performer of Powell Flutes, profiled in Albuquerque The Magazine, appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, and served multiple times as a Newly Published Music judge for the National Flute Association. As a student, Jesse was a member of the Catania International Music Festival and the National Repertory Orchestra. Jesse studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of New Mexico. They are also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice. Electronica concert video teaser below:  Sunday 30 March 4:00pm
53rd Annual Robb Concert Maxine Thévenot organ Jonathan Golove cello Jeffrey Brooks clarinet Natasha Stojanovska piano Mark Weber poet Location: Episcopal Cathedral of St. John Program (order tba):
Details at robbtrust.org/robbconcert.html. 2024 ¡Música del Corazón!9/2/2025 Sacred Choral Music and Ritual Dance on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro: 1598-1821 ~ 11th Annual John Donald Robb, Jr. Memorial Concert Sunday 24 November 2024 FREE family-friendly community event 2pm round table 3pm concert UNM Keller Hall | directions FREE City of ABQ street & meter parking. FREE UNM surface lot parking at Central between Girard and Princeton | directions. Convenient paid parking at UNM Cornell Parking Structure | directions. View, download, print a complimentary 2024 Commemorative Program. Schedule Visit the John Donald Robb information table and meet members of the Robb Trust Board in the Keller Hall lobby. 2pm Preconcert round table (45 minutes)
3pm Concert (approx. 100 minutes)
Co-Curator Statement During Spanish colonial times, the church was the patron of the visual, musical, and dramatic arts. The Counter-Reformation generously financed artists and composers to lend their talents to inspire Catholics with the spectacles of their faith. Sacred music echoed daily, resonating from the great stone cathedrals of New Spain to the humble adobe churches of New Mexico. During the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680, churches and sacred art were destroyed in the northlands, along with all traces of the repertory of sacred music. However, evidence found along the Camino Real shows that music played a daily, vibrant role in the liturgical calendar, spanning from Advent to Pentecost. It flourished particularly during Christmas and Holy Week seasons, as well as in Marian feasts and celebrations of particular saints like St. Francis or Santiago. UNM Concert Chorus and Música Antigua de Albuquerque draw from the music of the Camino Real from Mexico City north, as well as from the 18th century California missions. The calendar also featured seasonal autos sacramentales or sacramental plays, especially the Pastorela or Christmas shepherd's plays and La Pasión, the Passion of the Christ. Numerous other plays celebrated everything from Adam and Eve to the Virgin of Guadalupe. All had their own distinctive music that offered a reprieve from the solemnity of the Mass. Sixty days after Easter, Corpus Christi provided an opportunity for even more celebration. Villancicos or carols were sung in Spanish and Native languages. On such special occasions, costumed dancers appeared in the Tocotín, a ritual dance of Mexican origin. Its cousin, the Matachines dance, dramatizes the spiritual Conquest of Mexico and celebrates the emergence of a new Indo-Hispano culture. It was performed in and out of church from Mexico City to Santa Fe, spilling onto plazas and streets. The sones that still accompany the masked dance in New Mexico are the most ancient instrumental music in the land. Our program honors dancers and musicians from La Merced del Cañón de Carnué, the land grant in the mountains east of Albuquerque, especially since John Donald Robb visited there and recorded the songs on many occasions. ~ Dr. Javier Marín-López, Sacred Choral Music Curator ~ Dr. Enrique Lamadrid, Ritual Dance Curator Educational Outreach Each year ¡Música del Corazón! delivers 'eduformaces' lasting approximately 30 to 90 minutes. Events feature artists performing in the annual November ¡Música del Corazón! concert. Educational Outreach presentations incorporate Northern New Mexico Spanish cultural history, dance, and music. All educational outreach events are free admission and the public is cordially invited to attend. Tentative 2024 Educational Outreach Events Friday 22 November 10:00am-11:00am Artist: Matachines de la Merced del Cañón de Carnué Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center ~ theatre to be announced Program: Matachines lecture-demonstration with student interaction Friday 22 November 1:00pm-2:00pm Artist: Matachines de la Merced del Cañón de Carnué Location: National Hispanic Cultural Center ~ theatre to be announced Program: Matachines lecture-demonstration with student interaction Friday 22 November 3:00pm-5:00pm Artists: UNM Concert Choir + Música Antigua de Albuquerque Location: University of New Mexico ~ Keller Hall Program: Open rehearsal + tour of Keller Hall / Center for the Arts (CFA) Additional education/outreach event to be announced. Production Guest Curators
Keller Hall
John Donald Robb Musical Trust
Sponsors
2024 Robb Award9/2/2025 Michael Mauldin Composer and Music Educator Born in Texas in 1947, Michael Mauldin moved to New Mexico in 1971 for "the light, the space and the timelessness." That year he met JD Robb, with whom he worked to develop the New Mexico Composers Guild. He completed a Master’s Degree in composition at UNM, opened a music school, raised a family and wrote music. In 1980 he won the “Composer of the Year” award of the Music Teachers National Association for “Voices from Chaco: Concertino for Piano and Woodwind Quintet.” In 1985 "Fajada Butte: An Epiphany," commissioned by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, was performed at Kennedy Center by the National Repertory Orchestra for the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mauldin first visited New Mexico in the late 1950's when his father brought his family to church retreats at Ghost Ranch. While exploring red arroyos one day, he encountered artist Georgia O’Keefe painting a landscape. He remembered her distinctive appearance but learned only later who she was. He determined that he wanted to live in a place like that--a place that "surrounds you with colorful space--and creates new space inside you." His catalogue contains over 90 works, from chamber, orchestral and choral music, to works for harp, organ, guitar and piano. His music is “accessible, yet distinctive and memorable.” It often portrays the power and magic of the rugged beauty and ancient cultures of his adopted state of New Mexico. "Prayer of Mesas," for the University of New Mexico Chorus and Orchestra, was commissioned by UNM and the City of Albuquerque to celebrate the university's centennial in 1988. Michael served for four years as the national chair of the Student Composition Contest of the Music Teachers National Association. He served for seven years as Musical Director of the Albuquerque Boy Choir (of which his sons are alumni), which grew to three choirs, 85 boys between ages 7 and 17, who toured, recorded and completed a rigorous musicianship program. Mauldin guest-conducted student and community orchestras, and he conducted the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in recording sessions to prepare five of his orchestral pieces for the compact-disc album, "Enchanted Land." As a public speaker, clinician, composer and performer, he actively promoted private and public arts-education throughout the country. He has also been an advocate for the rights of children, holding that discipline is more than repression, and that society is repaid when children and young people are treated with respect and allowed to participate in choices regarding their own minds, bodies and spirits. Critical Acclaim:
Learn more about Michael: Video: Michael Mauldin's "Prayer of Mesas" for large orchestra and chorus (1989) performed by the Kyiv Philharmonic and Chorus. Text: "Father the Sun, Our Mother the Earth, Bless this place where the powers move-- the great powers that move between earth and sky! May the people that move upon us know from whence they came. Let the space of the land open their minds, that they may let the earth heal. May they let the earth heal, that they may live among us, and know from whence they came." Images: Dissolve photos of San Juan Mesa, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico. 2024-2025 Graduate Assistantship8/11/2025 Julia Camargo Julia Souto De Camargo {Brazil} is a mezzo-soprano and a Master of Music graduate from the University of New Mexico’s Music department, focusing on Voice Performance. She is interested in ethnomusicology studies and developing research about musical manifestations from her country, during her bachelor’s degree in music education at the University of São Paulo. Passionate about education, archivism, and music in its diversity, she currently holds the John Donald Robb Graduate Music Assistantship. Through this program, she works with the UNM Libraries' Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, focusing on the Robb Archives, serves on the production team for the Trust's public programming, and provides clerical support of the Trust's day-to-day operations. Performance Example Here is Julia Camargo and collaborative pianist James Harder performing an excerpt of Mario de Andrade, Viola Quebrada arranged by Heitor Villa Lobos, from the Vocal Artistry Art Song Festival at the University of New Mexico, November 2023.  Monica Demarco was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her work is shaped by the vibrant and resilient Albuquerque arts community. She is grateful for the exchange of skills and vision that comes from living and collaborating in the Southwest. Her compositions have won numerous awards, such as the Scott Wilkinson Composition Contest at UNM in 2008 for the piece “Hijas y Mas” and again in 2009 for the piece “Fray.” The composition “Hijas y Mas” has undergone revision over the last decade and was featured as a graphic score installment for National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York in 2019. Discussion of the work was also published in “Experimentalisms in Practice” by Dr. Ana R. Alonso-Minutti.
She acquired a dual bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico in music composition/theory and piano performance in 2009 and a master degree in social work from New Mexico Highlands University in 2020. She owns Monica Demarco Music in Albuquerque, which is dedicated to fostering creativity and passion for music in students of all abilities and ages. As a teacher, Demarco strives to provide musical skills, development informed by life course theory and family systems concepts to provide instruction that is socially conscious and uniquely tailored to the individual. Demarco performs under the name Cthulha. The project is a synthesis of Demarco’s passions, with piano at the heart and center of the ensemble. Cthulha has enjoyed collaboration with many amazing New Mexican artists who are all featured on the album Always Who You Were released in 2019 in collaboration with Matron Records. She is also a bassist in the local Albuquerque band Chicharra, The second album Let’s Paint This Town in Craters was released through Matron Records in 2017. She has had the great pleasure of organizing and performing in the music festival Gatas y Vatas founded by Marisa Demarco, which has brought her joy, connection and performance opportunities all over the world. World Premiere Map Songs (2024) for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, piano, and electronics by Monica Demarco, poetry by Laura Tohe, Navajo Nation Poet Laureate. The world premiere performance of Map Songs took place at the 52nd annual Robb Concert, Friday 29 March 2024, 7:30pm mst, UNM's Keller Hall. Admission is free. Laura Tohe read some of her poetry at the premiere. Featured performers: Jacqueline Zander-Wall mezzo-soprano Jesse Tatum flute Sally Guenther cello Debra Ayers piano Monica Demarco electronics  Juantio Becenti (Diné / Farmington) lives in the four corners area of New Mexico close to his birthplace on the Navajo Nation. He began composing music at a young age and received his first commission from the Moab Music Festival in 1998. He has since received commissions from Dawn Avery (North American Indian Cello Project), Raven Chacon (Native American Composers Apprenticeship Program), Michael Barrett (New York Festival of Song), George Steel (Abrams Curator of Music, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), and others. His compositions have been performed by the Phoenix Chamber Orchestra, Dawn Avery, ETHEL, America’s premier postclassical string quartet, and the Claremont Trio. He has studied at the Walden School for Young Musicians which he attended on full scholarship. He was the recipient of a grant from the First Nations Composers Initiative which he received in order to create original music for the film "Two Sprits", a documentary about the life and murder of Fred Martinez, a transgendered Navajo teenager.
World Premiere The Empty (2024) for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, and piano, dedicated to United States Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, by Juantio Becenti, text "The Empty" ©2008 by Renee Podunovich Used With Permission from "If There Is A Center, No One Knows Where It Begins" ISBN 978-0-6152-0069-9. The world premiere performance of The Empty took place at the 52nd annual Robb Concert, Friday 29 March 2024, 7:30pm mst, UNM's Keller Hall. Featured performers: Jacqueline Zander-Wall mezzo-soprano Jesse Tatum flute Sally Guenther cello Debra Ayers piano 2023 Robb Award Honoree10/3/2024 John Truitt Music Educator, Composer, Flamenco Guitarist and Woodwind Specialist John Truitt has been a career music educator in Albuquerque New Mexico for more than 50 years. In his career he has taught at all levels, from pre-K to the graduate level, and in recent years has mentored both formally and informally many of the music teachers in New Mexico. He has taught for The Albuquerque Public Schools, The National Institute of Flamenco and The University of New Mexico, but is most associated with the nationally prominent guitar program at Albuquerque Academy which he started in the 1970's and directed for 22 years. In the early 1970’s he studied baroque and renaissance performance practice with Frans Brueggen, Floyd Williams, Frank Bowen and Susan Patrick at UNM, and with colleagues started the early music ensemble Musica Antigua de Albuquerque. He has studied with flamenco guitarists Eric Patterson, Julio de los Reyes, David Serva and Pedro Cortes, and has accompanied and worked with Eva and Joaquin Encinias, La Tati, Maria Benitez, Chuscales, Lili del Castillo, Luis Campos, El Pelete and Daniel Ward. He is a past chair of the Guitar Education Council of The National Association for Music Education, a former member of the Pre-College Education Board of the Guitar Foundation of America, and as a member of the board of NMMEA, spearheaded the inclusion of guitar ensemble in the New Mexico All-State Music Festival, the first state in the country to do so. In 2019 he directed the New Mexico All State Guitar Ensemble in a premier performance of his piece “En El Torreon” for guitar orchestra. In 2014, his composition “Fin de Fiesta” for trumpet and guitar quartet (see video below) was selected by the International Trumpet Guild as a significant new work for the trumpet and performed at that organization’s international convention that year. He has written for concert band, jazz band, orchestra and chorus as well as guitar literature for both solo and ensemble. His works have been played by such artists as Mickey Jones, Jeremy Mayne, Genevieve Leitner, Ben Silva, Sarah Herbert, Adam Larison, Lynn McGrath, Elliot Simpson, Matthew Rohde, The Rio Grande Quartet, The Texas Guitar Quartet and The Triptych Guitar Trio. He is currently completing a set of musical impressions of works by artist Helen Hardin to be performed in the Spring of 2024. Mr. Truitt is a judge, clinician and director for festivals and competitions around the country, as well as being a freelance jazz woodwind player and flamenco accompanist. John Truitt is married to his wife of 48 years, Holly Truitt, with whom he has two children, airline pilot Lee Truitt, and historian Jacquelyn Truitt. He and Holly have three grandchildren, Grant, Grady, and Gibson. John will receive the Robb Award during the Robb Trust's annual Música del Corazón celebration featuring live performances by Lara Mananares, Jordan Wax, Felix Peralta, Rob Martinez, the UNM Mariachi Ensemble and others Sunday 19 November 2023 3pm at the National Hispanic Cultural Center's Albuquerque Journal Theatre. The event is free and the public is cordially invited. Below is a 2018 performance of John Truitt's composition "Fin de Fiesta; Evocacion; Bulerias" performed by the Texas Guitar Quartet with guest violinist Jennifer Choi. |
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