Scott Robbins’ Ritual Meditations
Linda Holzer, Professor of Piano at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, presented the world premiere of American composer Scott Robbins’ nine-movement piano solo, Ritual Meditations, in a filmed concert at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Sept. 21, 2012. The performance, in Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, made innovative use of technology, featuring multi-media enhancement in the form of photography by Peggy Harstvedt, projected as slides to accompany individual movements. Holzer performed the piece using her iPad 3 and the score-reading app ForScore with the hands-free page-turning device, AirTurn. The concert was filmed by UALR TV for local broadcast, and includes a short interview highlighting Holzer’s use of iPad technology in concert.
Presentation Type: Lecture-Recital
Recording Date: September 21, 2012
Recording Location: Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, University of Arkansas at Litte Rock
Duration: 5:54 interview; 46 min. musical performance
It is a privilege to be able to offer the premiere of a suite for piano, Ritual Meditations. Composer Scott Robbins grew up in Boone, North Carolina, near the Blue Ridge Parkway. He holds advanced music degrees from Wake Forest University, Duke University, and Florida State University, and now is a professor of music at Converse College in South Carolina. Dr. Robbins began his musical training as a drummer and guitarist in rock bands, and his music frequently retains aspects of his popular music background.
Scott Robbins’ compositions are widely performed and professionally recognized, having received over 50 awards, including the Clefworks Composition Competition, Second International Sergei Prokofiev Composition Competition, Yale University’s Norfolk National Composition Prize, NACUSA Young Composers Award, ASCAP Foundation Grant to Young Composers, American Music Center Composer Assistance Award, Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, multiple awards from ASCAP and commissions from the SC Music Teachers Association. Among those who have performed, commissioned or commercially recorded his works are the Czech Radio Symphony, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Loudoun Symphony Orchestra, Moyzes Quartet, Ensemble Radieuse, Trio Chromos, Gregg Smith Singers, and Dale Warland Singers. The Clearing, a film for which he composed the soundtrack, received the CINE-Eagle award and has been broadcast on Bravo and HBO.
In his notes for the piece, Dr. Robbins explains, “Ritual Meditations is an extended work consisting of nine movements arranged in an arch shape. All the movements possess varying levels of hypnotic, contemplative characteristics. The primarily-tonal musical language alludes to Minimalism (movement V), Bartok’s Mikrokosmos (movement VII), spirituals (IV. Hymn) and folk music (as in movement VI, which incorporates the hymn “I’ll Fly Away”).” Dr. Holzer is performing the piece using her iPad 3 and the app ForScore with the hands-free page-turning device, AirTurn.
Photographs in the slideshow that accompanies this performance of Ritual Meditations were taken by Peggy Harstvedt in diverse locations internationally over a period of 5 years: Pensacola Beach, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Little Rock, Arkansas; Dallas, Texas; Prague, Czech Republic and Vienna, Austria.
Interview: Linda Holzer discusses and demonstrates concert technology. iPad, with the app ForScore and the hands-free page-turning device AirTurn.
Ritual Meditations Scott Robbins (b. 1964)
I. Hazy, undefined
II. Maestoso, con ritegno
III. Somnus
IV. Hymn
V. Hypnotic
VI. Fly Away
VII. Misterioso
VIII. Passage - “Only empty hands did I bring into this world – barefoot, I leave it. Coming and going: two ordinary events that got entangled.” ~ Kozan Ichikyo (written on the day of his death)
IX. Majestic, sonorous
Last modified on Thursday, 27/09/2018
Linda Holzer
Pianist Linda Holzer is a professor of music at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. An active soloist and chamber musician, Dr. Holzer has been heard in concert in 26 states, including at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and New York Public Radio Station WNYC-FM, as well as abroad at Qingdao University in mainland China, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Palffy Palace in Bratislava, Slovakia.
A native of Chicago, Dr. Holzer holds degrees in piano performance from Northwestern University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Florida State University. She served as chair of the Committee on the Pedagogy Student for the 2007 and 2009 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago, and is an active member of the Network of Music Career Development Officers (NETMCDO).
Dr. Holzer is a founding member of the duo Mariposa with violinist Sandra McDonald, assistant concert master of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. She also enjoys writing, and is the author of articles published in Piano & Keyboard, Clavier, American Music Teacher, and Piano Pedagogy Forum. She served for 6 years as the team leader for UALR's Teaching with Technology team for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and was recently awarded Quality Matters certification for her piano pedagogy course. She is an advocate of performance technology, using iPad 3 with the app for Score and the hands-free page-turning device AirTurn in concert.