Within the context of the Gerhard Richter exhibition, American percussionist and composer Robyn Schulkowsky recently performed at Fondation Beyeler. In this conversation with Mirjam Baitsch (Fondation Beyeler), she talks about what fascinates her about percussion, her work with John Cage, and Gerhard Richter’s paintings – and she also shows how to play a cactus! The video above is an excerpt, the complete interview is available further down on this page.

Percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky was born in South Dakota, USA. She studied at the University of Iowa, the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. In 1980 she moved to Cologne (Germany), to study with Christoph Caskel. Since then, she lives in Europe. Robyn Schulkowsky has premiered and recorded some of the most important percussion works of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has been working with composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kevin Volans, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis.

Interview with Robyn Schulkowsky at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (Switzerland), July 1, 2014.

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.

Complete video (14:16 min.):
https://vimeo.com/102931884