Robb Award
Raven Chacon 2025 Honoree
Raven Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. As a solo artist, Chacon has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Renaissance Society, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Borealis Festival, SITE Santa Fe, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, and Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York. As a member of Postcommodity from 2009-2018, he co-created artworks presented at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, Carnegie International 57, as well as the 2-mile long land art installation Repellent Fence.
A recording artist over the span of 24 years, Chacon has appeared on more than eighty releases on various national and international labels. In 2022, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Voiceless Mass. His 2020 Manifest Destiny opera Sweet Land, co-composed with Du Yun, received critical acclaim from The LA Times, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and was named 2021 Opera of the Year by the Music Critics Association of North America.
Since 2004, he has mentored over 300 high school Native composers in the writing of new string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). Chacon is the recipient of the United States Artists fellowship in Music, The Creative Capital award in Visual Arts, The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship, the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition, the Bemis Center’s Ree Kaneko Award, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award (2022), the Pew Fellow-in-Residence (2022), and is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow.
His solo artworks are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and National Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Getty Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and various private collections.
World Premiere
Tiguex, for the entire city of Albuquerque (2025), composed by Pulitzer Prize-winning, Albuquerque-based composer Raven Chacon, is a large-scale musical composition consisting of twenty overlapping movements performed over the span of a day.
The performance takes place September 27th, 2025, from dawn to dusk, across the city of Albuquerque.
A recording artist over the span of 24 years, Chacon has appeared on more than eighty releases on various national and international labels. In 2022, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Voiceless Mass. His 2020 Manifest Destiny opera Sweet Land, co-composed with Du Yun, received critical acclaim from The LA Times, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and was named 2021 Opera of the Year by the Music Critics Association of North America.
Since 2004, he has mentored over 300 high school Native composers in the writing of new string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). Chacon is the recipient of the United States Artists fellowship in Music, The Creative Capital award in Visual Arts, The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship, the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition, the Bemis Center’s Ree Kaneko Award, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award (2022), the Pew Fellow-in-Residence (2022), and is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow.
His solo artworks are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and National Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Getty Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and various private collections.
World Premiere
Tiguex, for the entire city of Albuquerque (2025), composed by Pulitzer Prize-winning, Albuquerque-based composer Raven Chacon, is a large-scale musical composition consisting of twenty overlapping movements performed over the span of a day.
The performance takes place September 27th, 2025, from dawn to dusk, across the city of Albuquerque.
Artistic Example
Video: Present Music premieres Raven Chacon's 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition "Voiceless Mass" on November 21st, 2021 at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee. Present Music, along with the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ and Plymouth Church UCC, commissioned "Voiceless Mass" by Raven Chacon for the 40th season of their concert series. “Voiceless Mass” is scored for organ, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, two percussionists, strings and sine tones. Raven Chacon writes: "This work considers the spaces in which we gather, the history of access of these spaces, and the land upon which these buildings sit. Though ‘mass’ is referenced in the title, the piece contains no audible singing voices, instead using the openness of the large space to intone the constricted intervals of the wind and string instruments. In exploiting the architecture of the cathedral, Voiceless Mass considers the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space is never an option for those in power." See more about Present Music at www.PresentMusic.org.
Video: Present Music premieres Raven Chacon's 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition "Voiceless Mass" on November 21st, 2021 at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee. Present Music, along with the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ and Plymouth Church UCC, commissioned "Voiceless Mass" by Raven Chacon for the 40th season of their concert series. “Voiceless Mass” is scored for organ, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, two percussionists, strings and sine tones. Raven Chacon writes: "This work considers the spaces in which we gather, the history of access of these spaces, and the land upon which these buildings sit. Though ‘mass’ is referenced in the title, the piece contains no audible singing voices, instead using the openness of the large space to intone the constricted intervals of the wind and string instruments. In exploiting the architecture of the cathedral, Voiceless Mass considers the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space is never an option for those in power." See more about Present Music at www.PresentMusic.org.
Frank McCulloch and Peter Gilbert
About the Robb Award
The UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust established the Robb Award in 2018. It is presented annually to musicians, individuals, or organizations from New Mexico that have made outstanding contributions in New Mexico in the areas of Music of the Southwest, Music Education, and Contemporary Music.
The Robb Award is presented to individuals or organizations making contributions in one or more of the musical fields cited no matter what their profession. The Robb Award is essentially a life-time achievement recognition; thus, no individual or organization will receive it more than once.
Process
Recognition
The Robb Award is conferred at either either one of two Trust events, Robb Concert in March or ¡Música del Corazón! in November, depending on the honoree's area of expertise. The award consists of:
The UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust established the Robb Award in 2018. It is presented annually to musicians, individuals, or organizations from New Mexico that have made outstanding contributions in New Mexico in the areas of Music of the Southwest, Music Education, and Contemporary Music.
The Robb Award is presented to individuals or organizations making contributions in one or more of the musical fields cited no matter what their profession. The Robb Award is essentially a life-time achievement recognition; thus, no individual or organization will receive it more than once.
Process
- The Chair of the UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust will receive nominations from the Board of Directors each June for the selection of the recipient for this recognition.
- The Chair will present the nominations to the Board of Directors. A majority of the members of the Board of Directors shall constitute a quorum necessary to determine the selection of the recipient of the recognition.
- The Robb Award Recipient will be held in confidence until notified by the Chair.
- The notification process and preparation of the recognition materials is managed by the UNM Robb Trust Program Specialist.
- Nominees not selected for the Robb Award in any given year are retained in a pool of nominees for future consideration. (To re-nominate, a current nomination form with any necessary updates will be submitted).
- The Board may choose not to present the Robb Award in any given year.
- Current Members of the Robb Trust Board of Directors are ineligible for this award.
Recognition
The Robb Award is conferred at either either one of two Trust events, Robb Concert in March or ¡Música del Corazón! in November, depending on the honoree's area of expertise. The award consists of:
- $1,000 honorarium
- Engraved nameplate added to the Robb Award memorial plaque displayed in perpetuity at the UNM College of Fine Arts
- Personal take home plaque
In Memoriam
Frank McCulloch (1930-2024)
Painter, folk singer, and guitarist Frank McCulloch was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1930. His father managed Harvey House Hotels in Gallup and in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Frank grew up hearing the folk music of the region and Mexico, and began playing music in the 1950s. He attained his BA in Biology in 1953 at the University of New Mexico and a MA in Biology in 1955 at the New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Then he studied art to earn a MFA at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. McCulloch taught high school art for 30 years, as well as at Princeton University, the University of New Mexico, and New Mexico Highlands University. He received the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award. ~ Albuquerque Museum
Frank was a longtime friend of the Robb Trust. He has performed numerous times in our annual ¡Música del Corazón! concert and he graciously donated his artwork to adorn the posters and program covers of many of our performances. Frank was the 2018 recipient of the Robb Award celebrating excellence in the Arts.
Here's Frank performing for ¡Música del Corazón! at the Albuquerque Journal Theatre, November 2021. We suspect this may have been his final public performance.
Frank McCulloch (1930-2024)
Painter, folk singer, and guitarist Frank McCulloch was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1930. His father managed Harvey House Hotels in Gallup and in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Frank grew up hearing the folk music of the region and Mexico, and began playing music in the 1950s. He attained his BA in Biology in 1953 at the University of New Mexico and a MA in Biology in 1955 at the New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Then he studied art to earn a MFA at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. McCulloch taught high school art for 30 years, as well as at Princeton University, the University of New Mexico, and New Mexico Highlands University. He received the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award. ~ Albuquerque Museum
Frank was a longtime friend of the Robb Trust. He has performed numerous times in our annual ¡Música del Corazón! concert and he graciously donated his artwork to adorn the posters and program covers of many of our performances. Frank was the 2018 recipient of the Robb Award celebrating excellence in the Arts.
Here's Frank performing for ¡Música del Corazón! at the Albuquerque Journal Theatre, November 2021. We suspect this may have been his final public performance.
Honorees
- 2025 Raven Chacon
- 2024 Michael Mauldin
- 2023 John Truitt
- 2022 Noberta Fresquez
- 2021 Dr. Brenda M. Romero
- 2020 Scott Wilkinson
- 2019 Enrique Lamadrid
- 2018 Frank McCulloch