Composers have invaded the UNM campus - the 32nd annual John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium began Sunday, featuring composition seminars, demonstrations and panel discussions with visiting composers and music department faculty.
Student composers are encouraged to attend and ask questions as part of the "Meet the Composers" series.
The symposium will continue through Wednesday and includes evening concerts, student composition awards and a sound installation piece, "amounts.to," by visiting composer Thomas DeLio. "Amounts.to" will be running throughout the symposium in the UNM Art Museum with a text reading by Peter Inman.
Anthony Braxton kicked off the festivities at the Outpost Performance Space Sunday and this is the first year the symposium has extended its activities beyond the doors of Popejoy Hall.
Braxton is a composer and saxophonist widely acclaimed and considered to have broken new ground in the jazz and American Experimental categories - think Wayne Marsh, John Coltrane or Ornette Coleman. He recently founded the Tri-centric Foundation, an assembly of 50 musicians and computer-graphic video artists with the expressed intent of performing his compositions.
Today in the "Meet the Composer" Series:
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Michael Hamman is a composer, theorist and software developer who conducts research in composition theory, theories of human/computer interaction design, software design engineering and computer-assisted composition. He is presently senior research programmer with the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Thomas DeLio is a composer and theorist recorded and published in the United States and Europe. His essays have been translated worldwide.
Peter Inman is a poet associated with the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E movement since the '70s. He has published many books including Ocker and Think of One and has been anthologized.
Tomorrow in the "Meet the Composer" Series:
Molly O'Meara, originally from Columbus, Ohio, is a founding member of the Central Ohio Composer's Alliance. She has lived in New Mexico since 1990 and, though unpublished, has been an active composer and teacher commissioned in the governor's Quincentennial Grant project in 1992.
Gustavo Aguilar, a percussionist, composer and improviser, is known for combining composed music with improvised musical elements to create a style that is both controlled and spontaneous. He is the Composer-in-Residence at GroundWorks DanceTheater in Cleveland, Ohio since 1997.
John C. and Harriet Robb established the John Donald Robb Musical trust in 1989. Since it began, the trust has supported the performances of Robb's work in addition to other composers in the symposium and a student scholarship for the study and performance of Robb's piano work.
