Clift Wins Robb Musical Trust Composers’ Competition

Com­poser Paul Clift sub­mit­ted the win­ning com­po­si­tion, “1950c”, for clas­si­cal gui­tar, in the 2012 UNM John Don­ald Robb Musi­cal Trust Com­posers’ Com­pe­ti­tion. The bien­nial com­pe­ti­tion requires com­posers to use mate­r­ial from the John Don­ald Robb Field Record­ings from the UNM Cen­ter for South­west Research in Zim­mer­man Library. The win­ner of the com­pe­ti­tion receives $3,500.

Clift will be hon­ored with the pre­miere of his com­po­si­tion at the 2013 John Don­ald Robb Com­posers’ Sym­po­sium, set for Sun­day, March 24 through Wednes­day, March 27 at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico.

A doc­toral stu­dent at Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity, Clift designed his win­ning com­po­si­tion as a musi­cal metaphor to the style of abstract impres­sion­ist painter Clyf­ford Still. “I sought to cre­ate a work for solo gui­tar in my own musi­cal lan­guage that made abstract ref­er­ence to the folk music of the South in the United States,” he said. “The J.D. Robb field-recording archives proved to be of immense value for me, in par­tic­u­lar the Mat­achines field record­ings of 1952.”

Clift, an Aus­tralian com­poser, has been liv­ing in New York City since receiv­ing a Colum­bia doc­toral fel­low­ship in 2009. He earned a mas­ter of music at King’s Col­lege in Lon­don and a bach­e­lor of arts at Monash Uni­ver­sity Con­ser­va­to­rium in Aus­tralia. His works have been per­formed at fes­ti­vals in North Amer­ica, Europe and Aus­tralia. His prin­ci­pal teach­ers have been George Ben­jamin, Jean-Luc Hervé, Fred Ler­dahl, Philippe Ler­oux, Fabien Lévy, Yan Maresz and Tris­tan Murail.

Judg­ing the 2012 com­pe­ti­tion were Volker Blu­men­thaler, pro­fes­sor of the­ory and com­po­si­tion at Hochschule für Musik in Nürn­berg, Ger­many; Lei Liang, pro­fes­sor of com­po­si­tion at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia San Diego; and Augusta Read Thomas, pro­fes­sor of com­po­si­tion at the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago.

The John Don­ald Robb Musi­cal Trust at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico was estab­lished in 1989 and is ded­i­cated to keep­ing alive the vibrant spirit and con­tri­bu­tions of Robb, an accom­plished com­poser and collector/arranger of folk music, whose preser­va­tion of His­panic folk music in New Mex­ico is unmatched.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu