Born and raised in South Dakota, Robyn Schulkowsky has been an innovator and collaborator throughout her life. She has dedicated herself to revealing the wonders of percussion to people around the world. Her continuous exploration of new sound dimensions has led to the development of new and unusual musical instruments.
An active musician on five continents, Robyn moved to Germany during a heyday of experimental and adventurous classical composition. She has premiered and recorded some of the most important solo percussion works of the 20th and 21st centuries, working with composers Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, and Morton Feldman, presenting their works on tours in Africa, India, Asia, the USA, South America and Mexico. Her solo and concerto performances with music by John Cage, Helmuth Lachenmann, and Olga Neuwirth have been presented at festivals like The Proms, Salzburger Festspiel, Musikfest Berlin, Holland Festival, to name a few.
In her Online Masterclass series for Sounds Unheard, ‘Musical Integrity’, Robyn takes a close look at the roles space, location, time and truth play in musical interpretation. We’ll be focusing on two particularly renowned twentieth-century artists who Robyn has worked closely with over the course of her astounding career: the American composers and musical innovators John Cage and Christian Wolff.
In Robyn’s final episode, we’re taking a look at different kinds of marks – the marks you make on your music in time, across space, and in your life. Here Robyn shares her thoughts on how finding joy in our work, taking pleasure in the process, and learning to engage and disengage the ego can have a huge impact on our both our music and our lives.
Thanks to Robyn for sharing her knowledge and inspirations with us. We’ve covered a lot of ground in this series! To learn more about Robyn, please visit the website for her duo with drummer Joey Baron.
With thanks to our Online Masterclass partners Pughouse Studios.
