Gertrude Rivers Robinson

Gertrude Eloise Rivers Robinson (June 30, 1927 – March 12, 1995) was an American educator, musician, ethnomusicologist, and composer. She was a professor at Loyola Marymount University from 1970 to 1995. She studied, wrote, recorded, performed, and taught music for gamelan ensemble.

Early life and education Rivers was born in Camden, South Carolina, After moving to California, she worked as an accompanist and collaborator with choreographer Lester Horton. She studied and performed gamelan music at UCLA, and traveled to Bali several times for further research. She lectured on dance at UCLA and UC Riverside in 1966, in programs with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, Her collected recordings were released as Bali South: Compositions of Wajan Gandera, Teacher, Composer, Gamelan Master, Peliatan, Bali (1973). Other projects took her to India, Trinidad, and Ghana. She served two terms as president of the Southern California chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology. She was named Woman of the Year by LMU's chapter of California Women in Higher Education in 1993. Compositions "Child", "Cry", "Sooth Song", "The Heart", "The Unfound Door", and "American Dance Story" (1948, for Cornell Dance Club) Quintet for Piano and Strings (1948) Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Cello (1949) Dedication to Carson McCullers (1952, for Lester Horton) Prado de pena (1953, for Lester Norton) She died in 1995, at the age of 67. The Gertrude Robinson Network is an affinity group within the Society for Ethnomusicology, for Black ethnomusicologists; it supports the Gertrude Rivers Robinson Annual Meeting Travel Award. Her former colleagues established the Gertrude Rivers Robinson Endowment for World Music at Loyola Marymount University in 2022.