Gertrude Rivers Robinson

Rivers was born in Camden, South Carolina, the daughter of William Napoleon Rivers Jr. and Gertrude Burroughs Rivers. Her parents were both college professors in Washington, D.C. She studied piano from childhood, attended Northfield School for Girls, and graduated from Cornell University in 1947. She began studying Indonesian music with Mantle Hood in the 1950s, and earned a master's degree in composition at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1972, with her thesis composition titled "Bayangan: Piece for Western septet and Balinese octet".

Robinson taught and performed at Cornell University between 1947 and 1950.{{Cite news |date=1947-05-05 |title=Cornell Slates Music Recital |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-cornell-slates-music/166498885/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Ithaca Journal |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1948-05-13 |title=Dance Program Completed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-dance-program-complet/166498384/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Ithaca Journal |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}} After moving to California, she worked as an accompanist and collaborator with choreographer Lester Horton.{{Cite news |date=1952-05-28 |title='Choreo '52' Colorful Modern Dance Program |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-times-choreo-52-colorful-moder/166499881/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=Valley Times |pages=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1954-05-21 |title=Gertrude Robinson to Write 'Choreo' Music |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-gertrud/166500068/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |pages=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1953-03-03 |title=New Dances for Premiere of 'Choreo '53' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-times-new-dances-for-premiere-of/166503005/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=Valley Times |pages=12 |via=Newspapers.com}} She studied and performed gamelan music at UCLA, and traveled to Bali several times for further research.{{Cite news |last=Hernandez |first=Mauricio |date=1975-10-08 |title=Update: Loyola |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/westchester-ladera-observer-update-loyo/166499463/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=Westchester-Ladera Observer |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} She lectured on dance at UCLA and UC Riverside in 1966, in programs with Eubie Blake{{Cite news |date=1966-12-07 |title=Vaudeville Living Legends to Talk at UCR Program |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-bernardino-county-sun-vaudeville/166504797/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The San Bernardino County Sun |pages=33 |via=Newspapers.com}} and Noble Sissle,{{Cite news |last=Terrill |first=Ann |date=1966-09-23 |title=2 Film Classics Introduce UC Course on Art, Culture |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-register-2-film-classics-introduce-u/166499144/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Register |pages=36 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her collected recordings were released as Bali South: Compositions of Wajan Gandera, Teacher, Composer, Gamelan Master, Peliatan, Bali (1973).{{Cite web |title=Bali South, Ethnomusicology Archive Series Vol. 1 |url=https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/resources/ethnomusicology-publications/cds/bali-south/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music |language=en-US}} Other projects took her to India, Trinidad, and Ghana.

Robinson taught at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) from 1970 until 1995, and was chair of the music department there. She organized a "Festival of Gamelan" at LMU in 1985.{{Cite news |date=1985-04-25 |title=Indonesian Music Festival at Loyola |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-argonaut-indonesian-music-festival-a/166503558/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Argonaut |pages=20 |via=Newspapers.com}} She served two terms as president of the Southern California chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology.[https://www.ethnomusicology.org/page/SF_Memorials_Robinso "Gertrude Rivers Robinson (1927-1995)"] The Society for Ethnomusicology. She was nameed Woman of the Year by LMU's chapter of California Women in Higher Education in 1993.{{Cite news |date=1993-06-10 |title=LMU Briefs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-argonaut-lmu-briefs/166503874/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Argonaut |pages=13 |via=Newspapers.com}}

• "Child", "Cry", "Sooth Song", "The Heart", "The Unfound Door", and "American Dance Story" (1948, for Cornell Dance Club){{Cite news |last=Ross |first=Mina B. |date=1949-05-14 |title=Cornell Dance Club Willard Straight Theater |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-cornell-dance-club-wi/166494599/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Ithaca Journal |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Quintet for Piano and Strings (1948){{Cite book |last=Walker-Hill |first=Helen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAXtSDgveKQC&lpg=PR5&ots=PvbVDhUNW4&dq=Gertrude%20Rivers%20Robinson&lr&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q=Gertrude%20Rivers%20Robinson&f=false |title=Music by Black Women Composers: A Bibliography of Available Scores |date=1995 |publisher=Center for Black Music Rsrch |isbn=978-0-929911-04-5 |pages=5, 17, 21, 23, 25, 31, 37, 61, 68 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=1948-04-30 |title=Music Students Plan Recital |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-music-students-plan-r/166498734/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Ithaca Journal |pages=7}}
• Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Cello (1949)
• Sketches for Children's Classes in Modern Dance (1951)
• Allegro Scherzando (1952){{Cite news |date=1952-01-30 |title=Ballet to Feature Club Concert |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-ballet-to-feature-clu/166503410/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=The Ithaca Journal |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Dedication to Carson McCullers (1952, for Lester Horton)
• Dedication to Ruth, Mary, Martha (1952, for Lester Horton)
• Seven Scenes with Balabil (1952, for Lester Horton)
• Dedication to Hiroshima (1952, for Lester Horton){{Cite news |date=1955-08-13 |title=Hiroshima Motif in 'Choreo 1955' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-times-hiroshima-motif-in-choreo/166504089/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=Valley Times |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Prado de pena (1953, for Lester Norton)
• Morning, Mourning (1954, for Lester Horton)
• Bayangan: Piece for Western septet and Balinese octet (1962, rev. 1972)
• Moods I and II (1986)
• Sleep (1989, based on a passage from William Shakespeare)

Rivers married aerospace engineer Spencer Monroe Robinson in 1950, and moved with him to Los Angeles. They had two children. Her husband died in a car accident in 1968.{{Cite news |date=1968-02-22 |title=S. M. Robinson, Space Executive |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/madison-florham-park-eagle-s-m-robinso/166500399/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |work=Madison-Florham Park Eagle |pages=4 |via=Newspapers.com}} She died in 1995, at the age of 67.

Robinson's papers and recordings are in the Archives of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University.{{Cite web |title=Gertrude Rivers Robinson Collection, 1938-2012 |url=https://archives.iu.edu/catalog/VAE4614 |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Archives Online at Indiana University}} The Gertrude Robinson Network is an affinity group within the Society for Ethnomusicology, for Black ethnomusicologists;{{Cite journal |last=Harris |first=Deonte L. |date=2022-07-01 |title=On Race, Value, and the Need to Reimagine Ethnomusicology for the Future |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/etm/article-abstract/66/2/213/309858/On-Race-Value-and-the-Need-to-Reimagine?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Ethnomusicology |language=en |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=213–235 |doi=10.5406/21567417.66.2.03 |issn=0014-1836}} it supports the Gertrude Rivers Robinson Annual Meeting Travel Award.{{Cite web |title=Gertrude Robinson Network |url=https://www.ethnomusicology.org/page/Groups_Robinson |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240528233711/https://www.ethnomusicology.org/page/Groups_Robinson |archive-date=2024-05-28 |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=The Society for Ethnomusicology |language=en}} Her former colleagues established the Gertrude Rivers Robinson Endowment for World Music at Loyola Marymount University in 2022.{{Cite web |date=2022-02-21 |title=World Music Endowment Established at CFA |url=https://newsroom.lmu.edu/campusnews/world-music-endowment-established-at-cfa/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Loyola Marymount University Newsroom |language=en-US}}

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• [https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:546025 A 1947 photograph of Gertrude Rivers], from the Deceased Alumni Files, University Archives, Cornell University.

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Category:1927 births

Category:1995 deaths

Category:People from Camden, South Carolina

Category:Cornell University alumni

Category:Loyola Marymount University faculty

Category:American educators

Category:American ethnomusicologists

Category:American women composers

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Category:Gamelan musicians