Robison, Paula (Judith)
Robison, Paula (Judith)
Robison, Paula (Judith) , gifted American flutist; b. Nashville, Term., June 8, 1941. Her family went to Los Angeles when she was a child, where she studied piano, but then turned to the flute. After attending the Univ. of Southern Calif., she studied flute with Julius Baker at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (graduated, 1963); continued her studies with Marcel Moyse at the Marlboro (Vt.) Festival and in N.Y., where she made her recital debut (1961). After sharing 1st prize in the Munich Competition (1964), she became the first American to capture the 1st prize for flute in the Geneva Munich Competition (1964), she became the first American to capture the 1st prize for flute in the Geneva International Competition (1966). She became a member of the Chamber Music Soc. of Lincoln Center in 1969. With her husband, the violist Scott Nickrenz, she was made co-artistic director of chamber music at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Italy and Charleston, S.C. (1977), and at the Spoleto/Melbourne (Australia) Festival of Three Worlds (1986). She was also active as a teacher. She commissioned and gave the premieres of works by Leon Kirchner, Robert Beaser, Toru Takemitsu, and Oliver Knussen.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire