55th Robb Composers' Symposium Series
2026-2027 Season
The annual Robb Symposium Series aligns with The University of New Mexico's academic year, with events taking place during the fall and spring semesters. All events are free admission all ages family-friendly community events, unless otherwise noted. Visit this page regularly for new event listings.
The annual Robb Symposium Series aligns with The University of New Mexico's academic year, with events taking place during the fall and spring semesters. All events are free admission all ages family-friendly community events, unless otherwise noted. Visit this page regularly for new event listings.
Artist Talk
Monica Demarco
Thursday 10 September
2:00-2:50pm
Free Admission
a family-friendly
community event
The UNM Musicology Colloquium Series and Robb Composers' Symposium Series welcome composer/pianist/therapist Monica Demarco presenting A Shrine to Spruce, a lecture-recital exploring musical lineage, plant medicine, cultural identity, and the Eurocentric traditions of classical music.
Keller Hall at Center for the Arts (CFA)
University of New Mexico
College of Fine Arts
MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Directions
Monica Demarco
Thursday 10 September
2:00-2:50pm
Free Admission
a family-friendly
community event
The UNM Musicology Colloquium Series and Robb Composers' Symposium Series welcome composer/pianist/therapist Monica Demarco presenting A Shrine to Spruce, a lecture-recital exploring musical lineage, plant medicine, cultural identity, and the Eurocentric traditions of classical music.
Keller Hall at Center for the Arts (CFA)
University of New Mexico
College of Fine Arts
MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Directions
Robb Composers' Symposium Series Director
Peter Gilbert
Peter Gilbert
is a Professor of Music at the University of New Mexico. He has commissions and accolades from the Barlow Foundation, New Music USA, the Aaron Copland House, ZKM (Institut für Akustik und Musik), the Russolo Foundation, the Look & Listen Festival, the Third Practice Festival, and IMEB Bourges. He writes: “My music usually aspires to create a sonic architecture that helps us lose our sense of time completely and allows us to partake in a kind of more direct aural experience in search of passageways to transcendence.”
Gilbert’s music can be heard on numerous labels including New Focus Recordings and at petergilbert.net.
Here is Peter Gilbert's Soon as the Sun Forsook the Eastern Main performed by Emanuele Arciuli, piano from the album Burned into the Orange released by New Focus Recordings and available on Bandcamp.
Gilbert’s music can be heard on numerous labels including New Focus Recordings and at petergilbert.net.
Here is Peter Gilbert's Soon as the Sun Forsook the Eastern Main performed by Emanuele Arciuli, piano from the album Burned into the Orange released by New Focus Recordings and available on Bandcamp.
Karola's composing, described by the New York Times as "hyperkinetic music”, is constantly in search of the unknown. After obtaining composition degrees in Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, and the University Mozarteum Salzburg, her sense of rhythm and form was forever changed by studying Carnatic and Hindustani classical music in Chennai and Delhi, India.
A Ph.D. at Harvard University brought her to the US where she taught at the University of New Mexico before joining the Department of Music at UC San Diego. She also lives and works part of the year in Europe and has been a visiting artist at ZKM, Deutsche Akademie Rom, Centro Tedesco di studi Veneziani, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Eisler House (International Hanns Eisler Scholarship), and IRCAM.
Her music, often political, always dramatic, includes operas for Staatstheater Nürnberg, Theater Bielefeld, Theater Bonn, Theater Heidelberg, Theater Aachen, and Stuttgart’s Musik der Jahrhunderte. The emotional juxtapositions of story suspended in a tableau architecture that one finds in her operas can be heard in her concert works as well. These include commissions from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fromm Music Foundation, New Music USA, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Saarländischer Rundfunk, and numerous renowned soloists and ensembles.
Her music can be heard on CD (WERGO, New Focus Recordings, Brilliant Classics, NEOS) and online at karolaobermueller.net.
Here is Karola Obermüller's Dehnung (2020) for daegeum, koto, gayageum, two violins, viola violoncello, double bass, and percussion performed by AsianArt Ensemble 15 May 2023, Konzerthaus Berlin. All rights reserved.
A Ph.D. at Harvard University brought her to the US where she taught at the University of New Mexico before joining the Department of Music at UC San Diego. She also lives and works part of the year in Europe and has been a visiting artist at ZKM, Deutsche Akademie Rom, Centro Tedesco di studi Veneziani, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Eisler House (International Hanns Eisler Scholarship), and IRCAM.
Her music, often political, always dramatic, includes operas for Staatstheater Nürnberg, Theater Bielefeld, Theater Bonn, Theater Heidelberg, Theater Aachen, and Stuttgart’s Musik der Jahrhunderte. The emotional juxtapositions of story suspended in a tableau architecture that one finds in her operas can be heard in her concert works as well. These include commissions from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fromm Music Foundation, New Music USA, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Saarländischer Rundfunk, and numerous renowned soloists and ensembles.
Her music can be heard on CD (WERGO, New Focus Recordings, Brilliant Classics, NEOS) and online at karolaobermueller.net.
Here is Karola Obermüller's Dehnung (2020) for daegeum, koto, gayageum, two violins, viola violoncello, double bass, and percussion performed by AsianArt Ensemble 15 May 2023, Konzerthaus Berlin. All rights reserved.
Venues
Center for the Arts (CFA)
University of New Mexico
College of Fine Arts
MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Directions
Map Key:
A. CFA entrance
B. CFA Room 1111
C. Keller Hall (505) 277-2131
D. Popejoy Hall (505) 277-8010
Paid visitor parking is available at the
UNM Cornell parking structure
Center for the Arts (CFA)
University of New Mexico
College of Fine Arts
MSC04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Directions
Map Key:
A. CFA entrance
B. CFA Room 1111
C. Keller Hall (505) 277-2131
D. Popejoy Hall (505) 277-8010
Paid visitor parking is available at the
UNM Cornell parking structure
UNM Arts Lab
131 Pine Street NE @Central & University
Albuquerque, NM 87106
(505) 277-2253
Directions
Episcopal Cathedral of St. John
318 Silver Avenue SW (corner of 3rd & Silver)
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 247-1581
Directions
131 Pine Street NE @Central & University
Albuquerque, NM 87106
(505) 277-2253
Directions
Episcopal Cathedral of St. John
318 Silver Avenue SW (corner of 3rd & Silver)
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 247-1581
Directions
About The John Donald Robb
Composers' Symposium Series est. 2022
Composers' Symposium Series est. 2022
The John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium Series, aka Robb Symposium Series, established in the fall of 2022, is an outcropping of the celebrated annual UNM John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium. The series features concerts of new music by guest artists and UNM faculty & students, as well as masterclasses, artist talks, and workshops.
The UNM Robb Trust promotes the exploration of new music through the Robb Symposium Series. Since 1972, the internationally renowned John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium has brought composers and musicians from around the world to UNM for a series of public concerts and unique learning opportunities for UNM students. Past guest composers have included such luminaries as Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Lukas Foss, Michael Colgrass, Gordon Mumma, Raven Chacon, and Chen Yi. The legacy of the John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium continues through the Robb Symposium Series.
The Trust sponsors the biennial Robb Commission in even years. The winner is awarded a cash prize and their composition is premiered at a Robb Symposium Series concert, typically the annual Robb Concert, which takes place in the spring.
The UNM Robb Musical Trust serves as a bridge between the UNM College of Fine Arts and the New Mexico community, regularly presenting concerts of Robb’s compositions along with Hispanic folk songs, preserving and promoting the archive of 3,000+ field recordings Robb made, and collaborating with community partners in educational initiatives. Through its many activities, the Trust proudly carries on the vision of its namesake, John Donald Robb.
The UNM Robb Trust promotes the exploration of new music through the Robb Symposium Series. Since 1972, the internationally renowned John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium has brought composers and musicians from around the world to UNM for a series of public concerts and unique learning opportunities for UNM students. Past guest composers have included such luminaries as Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Lukas Foss, Michael Colgrass, Gordon Mumma, Raven Chacon, and Chen Yi. The legacy of the John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium continues through the Robb Symposium Series.
The Trust sponsors the biennial Robb Commission in even years. The winner is awarded a cash prize and their composition is premiered at a Robb Symposium Series concert, typically the annual Robb Concert, which takes place in the spring.
The UNM Robb Musical Trust serves as a bridge between the UNM College of Fine Arts and the New Mexico community, regularly presenting concerts of Robb’s compositions along with Hispanic folk songs, preserving and promoting the archive of 3,000+ field recordings Robb made, and collaborating with community partners in educational initiatives. Through its many activities, the Trust proudly carries on the vision of its namesake, John Donald Robb.
A History of
The John Donald Robb
Composers' Symposium 1972-2022
The John Donald Robb
Composers' Symposium 1972-2022
|
Some of the
Symposium’s notable guests Emanuele Arciuli Arditti Quartet Robert Ashley Milton Babbitt Anthony Braxton Martin Bresnick John Cage Raven Chacon Chen Yi Michael Colgrass Abbie Conant George Crumb Joséph Daley Trio Ekmeles Halim El-Dabh Pozzi Escot Julio Estrada Lukas Foss Lou Harrison Alan Hovhaness Karel Husa John Harbison Vijay Iyer Betsy Jolas Ernst Krenek Joan La Barbara Libby Larsen Lei Liang loadbang George Lewis John Lewis Lisa Moore Thea Musgrave Valerie Naranjo Susan Narucki Pauline Oliveros Hilda Paredes Vincent Persichetti Roger Reynolds Ned Rorem Steven Schick Maria Schneider Gunther Schuller Cecil Taylor James Tenney Joan Tower Trio Magnoliana Christian Wolff |
In 1972, William Wood invited Norman Lockwood to have works of his performed at the University of New Mexico alongside UNM student composers during a late April concert program. This marked the beginning of what is now known as the UNM John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium, an event that has occurred annually and uninterrupted since then, making it one of the longest-running festivals of new music in the world.
The next years included a cavalcade of significant composers, including Ned Rorem, Karel Husa, John Harbison, and John Cage, among others. Always, experimentation was encouraged. It didn’t take long for the symposium to gain an international reputation. One featured guest was invited to each symposium until 1989. In honor of the university’s centennial that year, the symposium honored forty UNM Music Department alumni and friends, with special tributes going to John Donald Robb, former dean of the UNM College of Fine Arts. That year, the Robb Concert was established, beginning a tradition in which a composition of the former dean would be performed at every symposium. A decade later, the symposium was renamed the John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium to honor the former dean who had been instrumental in developing the music program at UNM. As the Department of Music faculty became more involved, a full schedule of daytime masterclasses and lectures featuring visiting guests was introduced, providing exciting opportunities for students. The symposium is now presented jointly by the UNM Department of Music and the John Donald Robb Musical Trust. Beginning in the 1990s, the symposium experimented with themes, such as film music and music theory and jazz. More recent themes have included music and movement, social issues in contemporary music, and the influence of Native American culture and composers on new music. In celebration of the New Mexico Centennial in 2012, the works of more than fifty composers were featured during the symposium. In 2019 the symposium hosted the Society of Composers national conference, performing works by more than eighty composers from around the country. That year also featured three concerts by the celebrated Arditti Quartet, which included nine UNM student premieres. Through generous support of the John Donald Robb Musical Trust, The Mr. and Mrs. Sanford N. McDonnell Foundation, the UNM College of Fine Arts, and the UNM Department of Music, all Robb Symposium events are free and open to the public, which continues another long tradition: making live music available to everyone. |
Past Symposium Directors
- Steven Block
- Christopher Shultis
- Scott Wilkinson
- William Wood
ARCHIVES
John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium
predecessor to the Robb Symposium Series
1972-2022
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