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The 2008 John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium (March 30-April 2) featured the music of Gordon Mumma, the final composer in a three year series featuring prominent members of the famous ONCE festivals in Ann Arbor Michigan. Mumma, an early innovator in the field of live electronics, composed and performed for many years with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The Monday evening concert featured John Donald Robb's Triangulum, Op. 84 for Clarinet and Piano performed by UNM Professor of Music Keith Lemmons and pianist Mary Beth Gunning. Also, Dean Robb’s String Quartet Number 2 was performed by the UNM Faculty String Quartet. Other composers participating included Daniel Lentz, Carlo Alessandro Landini and Riccardo Piancentini from Italy, DJ Wolf from Frankfurt Germany, Yvonne Lee from Massachusetts and Anne Guzzo from Wyoming. Steve Peters presented this year's sound installation at the UNM Art Museum. Dawn Chambers, Richard Cameron-Wolfe and John Kennedy also had works performed and UNM composers Richard Hermann, Molly Sturges, Panaiotis, Paul Lombardi, Christopher Shultis and William Wood had new works premiered as part of the festival.The opening concert featured this year's Artists-in Residence, Duo Alterno in a concert of contemporary Italian and American composers. |
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history of the composers' symposium
In 1972, Dr. William Wood was hired as Composer-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Theory and Composition. That year, his former teacher Norman Lockwood was invited to participate in the first annual UNM Composers' Symposium, which also featured performance of works by UNM student composers. The event has continued annually since then, making it one of the longest on-going festivals of new music in the world, and one that now has attained a regional, national and international reputation. During the 1990s, the symposium was renamed and became the John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium, in honor of Dr. Robb, who served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts from 1942 to 1957.
Honored guests have included Ned Rorem, George Crumb, Vincent Persichetti, Max Schubel, Karel Husa, Gunther Schuller, David Raksin, Lukas Foss, George Rochberg, Thea Musgrave, Ernst Krenek, David Baker, Lou Harrison, John Harbison, Milton Babbitt, Christian Wolff, James Tenney, John Tower, Alan Hovhaness, Nicholaw Maw, Libby Larson, Julio Estrada, Pauline Oliveros, Anthony Braxton, Robert Cogan, Pozzi Escot, Gordon Getty and John Cage. In 1989, the Symposium, as part of the university's centennial, honored forty of the Music Department's alumni and friends, with special honors accorded to John Donald Robb, John Lewis and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Colgrass. Special themes and subjects have been featured during some years, including film music (with Joji Yuasa as guest composer), music and technology (Joan La Barbara and Morton Subotnick), and music theory and jazz (Maria Schneider).
Previous Programs:
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More information can be found at the John Donald Robb Musical Trust Website.
