Projects
The UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust is actively involved in supporting the community by providing underwriting to organizations, ad hoc projects, educational outreach, programming, concerts, and events. Below is a list of the Trust's recent endeavors.
2024 Projects
National Hispanic Cultural Center
The Robb Trust underwrites annual community programming produced by the National Hispanic Cultural Center. In 2023, the Trust sponsored Día de Familia y Comunidad: Fiesta de Barelas. Visitors had a chance to make paper architecture, maracas, and weaving, and learn from Barelas community organizations. Vicente Griego and Chuy Martinez who presented sing-along performances featuring music from the John Donald Robb Archives at the UNM Center of Southwest Research and Special Collections.
The free community event was supported by Bank of Albuquerque and musical performances were sponsored by the Robb Trust.
The free community event was supported by Bank of Albuquerque and musical performances were sponsored by the Robb Trust.
PBS Learning Project
Folk Music of New Mexico: The John Donald Robb Collection is an educational initiative produced by New Mexico PBS and the University of New Mexico John Donald Robb Musical Trust with support from the University of New Mexico Libraries' Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, The Mr. and Mrs. Sanford N. McDonnell Foundation, The Brabson Library and Educational Foundation, and Albuquerque Public Schools. The collection contains video, audio, Spanish transcriptions, English translations, and sheet music for the traditional songs. Support materials include lesson plans (coming soon), student handouts, and video descriptions of the song forms. Supplemental reading material and a documentary film by NM PBS, The Musical Adventures of John Donald Robb in New Mexico, are also available.
The Robb Trust provides underwriting and extensive, detailed content. Trust Board members Rosalia Pacheco and Nancy Harbert, and Honorary Board member Enrique Lamadrid, are working closely with NMPBS to bring this project to a completion.
The Robb Trust provides underwriting and extensive, detailed content. Trust Board members Rosalia Pacheco and Nancy Harbert, and Honorary Board member Enrique Lamadrid, are working closely with NMPBS to bring this project to a completion.
Universidad de Nuevo México Mariachi
The Trust pays salary and benefits for two adjunct faculty teaching with the UNM Mariachi Program. Currently, those faculty are Monica E. Trujillo and José Carrillo.
UNM Music Department Audiotape Digitization Archival Project
Approximately 25 years ago the UNM Fine Arts Library discarded about 1,500 reel-to-reel audio tapes of events presented by the UNM Music Department. The library no longer had the technology to play these tapes. The tapes represent a historic treasure trove with recordings of faculty, student, and guest performances dating from the 1950s – 1990s.
The reel to reel analogue tapes were given to the Music Department which placed them in the basement of Hokona Hall where they sat deteriorating and unavailable for decades. In the summer of 2022, the tapes were “rescued” and subsequently cleaned, labeled, and catalogued. They now reside back in the Music Department. The next goal of the project is to get the tapes digitized so the recordings are once again playable on modern equipment.
The UNM Robb Trust and its Archives/Underwriting Committee initiated support for the process.
Below is one of the 1,500 reel to reel analogue tapes which was recently transferred to digital format and cleaned up for enhanced audio quality. It features John Donald Robb (1892-1989) presenting a lecture on Folk Music of the Southwest at UNM's Keller Hall 1 April 1987.
The reel to reel analogue tapes were given to the Music Department which placed them in the basement of Hokona Hall where they sat deteriorating and unavailable for decades. In the summer of 2022, the tapes were “rescued” and subsequently cleaned, labeled, and catalogued. They now reside back in the Music Department. The next goal of the project is to get the tapes digitized so the recordings are once again playable on modern equipment.
The UNM Robb Trust and its Archives/Underwriting Committee initiated support for the process.
Below is one of the 1,500 reel to reel analogue tapes which was recently transferred to digital format and cleaned up for enhanced audio quality. It features John Donald Robb (1892-1989) presenting a lecture on Folk Music of the Southwest at UNM's Keller Hall 1 April 1987.
Archives