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2024 ¡Música del Corazón! curator 
2025 underwriting recipient
Javier Marín-López

Working with the UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust has been exceptionally enriching. Serving as co-curator of ¡Música del Corazón! in 2024, receiving support through the 2025 Underwriting Program, and working with the Robb Archives have provided unique opportunities for research, scholarly exchange, and public engagement. These experiences have deepened my understanding of the region’s rich musical heritage and its connections with the broader United States, Mexico, and Spain, while fostering meaningful collaborations that continue to shape and transform my work as a musicologist. ~ Dr. Javier Marín-López

More information about Javier is available at his Linktree. Here are his mid-term and final reports for his 2025 Robb Trust Underwriting project, Vestiges of Hispanic Colonial Music in the John Donald Robb Archive of Southwestern Music.

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Música del Corazón
Underwriting
Robb Archives

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2026 underwriting recipient
Mónica Sánchez
May 2026

MÓNICA SÁNCHEZ is a professional theatre artist. Over the past 40 years, she has honed the craft of professional actor; written plays and devised work for the stage; directed productions small and large; enjoyed a myriad of assignments as a teaching artist; and has facilitated numerous community engagements.She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico and is a retired Professor of Playwriting and Performance at Colorado College, in Colorado Springs.

She began her theatre journey in her native New Mexico with La Compañía de Teatro de Alburquerque, before a 23-year residency in California where she would collaborate with El Teatro Campesino, Octavio Solís, Luís Alfaro, Culture Clash, the Latino Theatre Lab, South Coast Repertory, San Diego Repertory, Erik Ehn, Cornerstone Theatre, Shirley Jo Finney, Playwright's Arena, and Diane Rodriguez, among others. Television and Film credits include the roles of Dolores Huerta in The Glorias, House of Cards, and Primo, among others.

Her plays aspire to unveil the varied and underrepresented experiences of Latinidad in the U.S., particularly the complex and unique philosophical, cultural and historical milieu of the Southwest; not only ripe for dramatic exploration but also sorely missing from the canon of the American theatre. 

She currently resides in Albuquerque, NM where she continues her work in independent, professional, and community projects and is always keen to entertain collaborations near and far.

About "THE RIVER IS A SCAR THAT SOMETIMES BLEEDS WATER"

THE RIVER IS A SCAR THAT SOMETIMES BLEEDS WATER is the psycho-spiritual journey of "Negra", a Mestiz-Genizara-Chicana 21st Century war veteran returned to her ancestral homeland in the Southwest. Psychotropic plant medicine launches her odyssey through a ceremonial and multi-generational labyrinth where she must confront ancestral trauma and original wounds, making way for the ultimate transformation: her desire to live. Quintessential New Mexican topography, histories and rituals illuminate universal echoes of colonization, war, and climate crisis. This play is Negra’s “trip”.

The Robb Trust is providing funding for a workshop production of THE RIVER IS A SCAR THAT SOMETIMES BLEEDS WATER. A first staged reading of the play was recently conducted at the Albuquerque Museum to a standing room only audience. There was much interest in the performance. The general consensus was that the story spoke to the New Mexican experience, was of great significance, and needed to be told.

The workshop production is a step towards developing the play for a future, fully produced theatre event. The play encompasses a broad reach of New Mexican histories, customs, characters, and rituals. Traditional music and specific songs from the Robb collection are a vital element to completing the storytelling of this play’s narrative.

Sánchez's script has previously been supported by the Jackson Fellowship from Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies at Colorado College (2021), a micro-commission from The Alcove New Play Development at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in NYC (2023), and most recently from the City of Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund’s (UETF) Resiliency Residency, in addition to production support from the Museum of Albuquerque for the Staged Reading that took place on 29 March 2026, in conjunction with the Delilah Montoya Retrospective: Activating Chicana Resistance.

Learn more about our annual underwriting.

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beloved longtime board member
Jim Bonnell (1939-2025)
July 2025

Jim was a longtime board member and past Chair of the Robb Trust. Here is his obituary as it was printed in the Albuquerque Journal. He is dearly missed by many. 

James E. (Jim) Bonnell, age 85 died on July 17, 2025. From pioneering Otero County families, Jim was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 22, 1939, to Charles E. Bonnell and Edith Ogle Bonnell.

After graduating from Alamogordo High School in 1957, Jim's education included a Masters in Music Education (plus 45 credit hours) which included a Certificate of Administration and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. His graduate and post-graduate work, in addition to UNM, included Eastern New Mexico University, Western State College of Colorado, New Mexico State University, Eastman School of Music-University of Rochester, and Indiana University. He began his teaching career in Artesia, NM, where he met his lifelong beloved collaborator, Paula Diane Thompson, from Trumann, Arkansas. They were married in 1964 and recently celebrated their 61st anniversary.

After a career in New Mexico public schools in Artesia, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque which spanned almost thirty years, Mr. Bonnell retired in 1989 from Albuquerque Public Schools where he served in various positions including Instructor, District Specialist, District Coordinator, and District Director (Acting) of Music Education. In 1989, Mr. Bonnell began a second career in the non-profit field working with both the Boy Scouts of America and then with Jan Hosea & Associates, LLC, in April of 2002. He served as Chief Operations Officer for Madden Hosea & Associates.
Jim held leadership positions in numerous community and professional organizations and was recognized in 2019 with the New Mexico Platinum Music Award "for extraordinary lifetime achievement". He was currently Vice Chair of the University of New Mexico's John D. Robb Musical Trust Board of Directors, and an Advisory Board member of the New Mexico Performing Arts Society of Santa Fe. He previously served as Education Vice President, Program Vice President, Strategic Education Chair, and Ethics Education Chair, for the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals, and was a past president and member of the Advisory Council of the Albuquerque Arts Alliance. Other affiliations have included Board of Directors, UNM College of Fine Arts Alumni Chapter (Past President), the New Mexico Music Educators' National Conference (Past President, Hall of Fame), the 1992 Arts Education Conference, and Arts Attack! Creating the Future, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Musicians (Past President), Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque Board of Trustees, and ACE Committee of Albuquerque Public Schools (Co-Chairperson). He represented the Great Southwest Council/Boy Scouts of America in many community roles including the District Advisory Council for Safe and Drug Free Schools, The Educational Success Alliance (Past President), the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Career Guidance Institute K-12 Committee and Blue Ribbon Outstanding Students and Educators Awards Committee, and the Advisory Council for TASA (Team Against Substance Abuse in APS).
As a professional musician, he performed as a violist in many Southwestern organizations including the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Opera Southwest, the El Paso Symphony, the Roswell Symphony, the Albuquerque Civic Symphony, the New Mexico Chamber Orchestra, and retired in 1997 as principal viola of the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque. He conducted various orchestras in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program: Valley Junior Orchestra, Heights Junior Orchestra, Albuquerque Junior Symphony, and Albuquerque Youth Symphony. He was also active as a church musician having either served as organist and/or choirmaster at St. Matthew's and St. Michael and All Angel's Episcopal in Albuquerque, St. Andrew's Episcopal (substitute) in Las Cruces, and St. Paul's Episcopal in Artesia. Mr. Bonnell filled the role of conductor, adjudicator, and clinician on many occasions in Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. He also was a presenter on several topics for professional education conferences in the Southwest and served as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Charles and Grace Bonnell and James N. and Dessie Ogle; his parents, Charles and Edith Bonnell, and his sister, Betty Jean Bonnell Artz. He is survived by his wife, Paula Diane Thompson Bonnell, and family members including: Sue McAdams, Karen and Howard Slinkard, David and Judy Thompson, Jack Artz and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

Jim and his wife Diane, also a retired public school music educator and a professional arts administrator, most recently with the UNM Music Prep School, are members of St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Albuquerque. Services will be held on August 5th (A Music Tribute at 1:30 and service at 2:00) at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Albuquerque, NM. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Music Program at the Cathedral Church of St. John (318 Silver Avenue SW, Albuquerque), The Diane Bonnell Scholarship Endowment for the UNM Music Prep School (UNM Foundation), the UNM Robb Musical Trust (UNM Foundation), The Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program, or The International Myeloma Foundation.

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emerging composer
Kelly Feng // 冯重瑞 (b. 2002)
UNM MM Theory & Comp '27
April 2026

So far, I have had the chance to write and premiere three different pieces through the Robb Trust and each time I’ve been able to build meaningful connections with amazing musicians. I really appreciate Robb Trust for giving student composers an accessible platform through which they can build their portfolios. 

Learn more about our annual Composers' Symposium Series and Robb Concert. 

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graduate assistantship
Emilio Méndez Rizo (b. 1998)
July 2026

As for the benefits I obtained from ROBBtrust, in my first year as their graduate assistant, they are many.

Most notably, the tuition discount and the stipend, enable my being at UNM. Without them I would not be able to afford rent, food, nor tuition. Even after years of working, saving and even selling precious objects in my home country I could only gather around 3,000 usd which could only cover a fraction of the first semester's cost of attendance.

Receiving this aid while asking me to focus on more music, was a major motivation throughout the year. This enabled me to hone my skills as a means of survival, while also participating in other musical activities such as the Albuquerque's composer's collective, where alongside fellow composers we put together a student chamber orchestra, wrote an original scrip, composed, and premiered an original opera that deals with topics of social insecurity and calls for union among working class fellows, regardless of their place of origin, highlighting how we all struggle with similar problems and how working together is the best option to survive.

It is truly a joy to work alongside other young composers and musicians, sharing musical tools and organizing as a collective to make new music happen. 

Another truly remarkable benefit, if not the greatest one, was all the learning I got from rehearsing with world-class musicians realizing residencies at the symposium. Rehearsal time is the most precious time for the composition of a piece, since only there the real problems of a piece are surfaced. The natural reactions of instrumentalists to the score are of crucial importance in composition, while some things must be clearly changed at once, others need only a little more time on the instrumentalist's side to reveal the potential music. Only rehearsing with experienced musicians can a composer truly develop a realistic compass for difficulty, one that can temper to the setting at hand, as professional life will demand.

Learn more about our graduate assistantship program.