Paula Robison

Paula Robison (born June 8, 1941) is a flute soloist and teacher.

Paula Robison was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the daughter of David V. and Naomi Robison, an actor. David Robison was a playwright and writer for film and television. Her paternal grandmother was a piano teacher, her maternal uncle the playwright Jerome Lawrence, and there were other musicians and dancers in the family. David studied in Vienna, and upon his return joined the faculty of Fisk University. There the family met the singer Paul Robeson, who became Paula's godfather. The family moved to Hollywood, where Naomi continued her acting career and David took up screenwriting. Paula's sister Deborah and brother Joshua were born there. Paula learned to play the flute in the orchestra of North Hollywood Junior High School, continuing her studies with Arthur Hoberman. She studied piano with her grandmother. At the age of ten she first met the composer Leon Kirchner, with whom she collaborated as an adult. Paula Robison attended the University of Southern California for two years, studying flute with Roger Stevens, Principal Flutist of the LA Philharmonic, theater with Jeff Corey, and dance with Bella Lewitzky. She eventually played for Julius Baker, which led to an audition for the Juilliard School. She was admitted and graduated with a BS in 1963. In 1961 she also began to study during the summers with Marcel Moyse at the Marlboro Music School and Festival (making her the direct musical descendant of Paul Taffanel). Her studies with Moyse continued until 1968.

Robison joined the roster of Young Concert Artists in their inaugural year, 1961. The same year, she played Volière in Saint Saëns' Carnival of the Animals with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Robison joined the New England Conservatory faculty in 1973, and also taught at the Juilliard School during the early 1980s. She now occupies the Donna Hieken Flute Chair at the New England Conservatory. In the early 1990s the composer Stanley Silverman, had come into possession of some musical scores written by Brazilian musicians for the Walt Disney cartoon, Saludos Amigos. He encouraged Robison to play one of these pieces as an encore at one of her 92nd Street Y concerts, a dance for flute and pandeiro, a large tambourine traditional in Brazil. Silverman invited the percussionist Cyro Baptista to join her. The flutist Irna Priore, who was at the concert, told her that in Brazil there was a repertory for flute in the choro, a tradition of popular song originating in 19th century Rio de Janeiro. Cyro Baptista's wife provided recordings and tapes of music that was largely unknown in the US. Robison began to work on it with Baptista and other Brazilian musicians, who toured with her and eventually they produced a recording, Brasileirinho. In the end the group became a trio: Cyro Baptista, Romero Lubambo and Ms. Robison. As she has said, "The fusion between the three of us, with Romero's elegant Bossa nova style and Cyro's mad world music percussion genius, created a whole new, very exciting sound. I called it 'Mistura Nova'!" The trio played together for over ten years. She also played with flutist Altamiro Carrilho and his ensemble in Rio de Janeiro.