2023 Robb Award Honoree

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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