Testimonials

“Thank you for the opportunity to write a composition using folk song source material from the Robb Archives.  This has been a very worthwhile endeavor, as well as a great pleasure.”

“In a separate matter from the Composer Competition, I wish to inform the UNM Robb Trust that I have been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship, based upon my composition from the John Donald Robb Archive of Southwestern Music.  It received good press in Austin, my hometown San Antonio, my university in San Marcos, as well as in the Ivy League northeast, Columbia University, and NYC.

Here's one of the blurbs:
Hehmsoth awarded MacDowell Fellowship in music composition: University News Service: Texas State University
 ... hope this raises some visibility for the Robb Trust!

I must also tell you that the 6-8 months of work I did on the composition last year was a very rewarding period of artistic growth for me, and I appreciate the opportunity the Trust gives to composers for new works.”

Sincerely, 
Hank Hehmsoth
 Hank Hehmsoth
Composition / Jazz Piano
School of Music
Texas State University - San Marcos

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“I visited the archives at UNM in 2007, and spent a day in the Fine Arts Library investigating J. D. Robb’s collected transcriptions of folk music.  I then toured the region for a week, visiting Anasazi pueblos including Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, and Lowry Pueblo.  I sat in the dwellings and kivas of the ancient ones, listening and absorbing the history first had.  The specific portions of the archives that I applied in my composition are drawn from the Hispanic Folk Songs of New Mexico . . . . . What I found most fertile and applicable were the compositional devices Robb himself used to create accompaniments to these simple folk tunes, including freely associated triads with added notes . . . . .”
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–Brad Hansen, Portland Oregon

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“Thank you for this opportunity!”  -Charles Blanchard, Santa Fe, NM

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“I have had so much fun, and (I feel) success with the implementation of these materials that I am currently finishing two more movements based upon Robb resources . . . .” 
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-Arthur Gottschalk, Houston, Texas

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​“I am pleased to submit my composition, “Enchanted Dream Walk,” to the Robb Musical Trust National Composers’ Competition.  As a student at UNM between 1991 and 1996, my ears were opened to the magical musics of the Southwest US.  I did not know Robb personally, but I know that I benefitted directly from his legacy as Dean and as an Ethnomusicologist.  Thank you for keeping the music he valued so highly alive.” 

-Tiffany Nicely, Buffalo, New York