2009 John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium

29-MAR-2009 through 01-APR-2009

The 2009 John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium featured 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 was co-sponsored by the Outpost Performance Space where Lewis and an ensemble featuring Nicole Mitchell and Hamid Drake gave the Opening Concert on Sunday, March 29.

Monday, March 30, the Concert in UNM's Popejoy Hall included 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, was featured in Concert on Tuesday, March 31. Wednesday April 1, presented 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; Biography: George Lewis serves as the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University, and the Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, an Alpert Award in the Arts in 1999, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lewis studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work as composer, improvisor, performer and interpreter explores electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, text-sound works, and notated and improvisative forms, and is documented on more than 120 recordings. His published articles on music, experimental video, visual art, and cultural studies have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and edited volumes, and his book, Power Stronger Than Itself:  The AACM and American Experimental Music, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008.

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, was performed at the 2009 Composers' Symposium. The competition awarded $3,500 for the winning composition which was announced after December 31, 2008.

Biography: George Lewis serves as the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University, and the Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, an Alpert Award in the Arts in 1999, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lewis studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work as composer, improvisor, performer and interpreter explores electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, text-sound works, and notated and improvisative forms, and is documented on more than 120 recordings. His published articles on music, experimental video, visual art, and cultural studies have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and edited volumes, and his book, Power Stronger Than Itself:  The AACM and American Experimental Music, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008.

Symposium Schedule:
Daytime Schedule for Monday, March 30
9:00 WELCOME: Steven Block, Chair, Department of Music
PANEL DISCUSSION: Kurt Frederick Hall (B-120)
"AACM and the American Experimental Tradition"
Tom Guralnick, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell
Steven Block, moderator
10:00 MEET THE COMPOSER: Kurt Frederick Hall (B-120)
Nicole Mitchell, Carter Pann
11:00COMPOSITION SEMINAR: B-117
George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Carter Pann
12:00 LUNCH for all visiting composers
2:00 MEET THE COMPOSER: Kurt Frederick Hall (B-120)
George Lewis lectures on his music and/or musical concerns.
4:00 CONCERT: Kiva Plaza, (west of Kiva Auditorium)
Robert Morris Arboretum (2008) outdoor composition for mixed ensemble and pre-recorded sound performed by New Music New Mexico; Kevin Vigneau, conductor.

2009 Symposium Program. 
2009 Concert Schedule.
2009 Daytime Schedule.

---