Paula learned to play the flute in the orchestra of North Hollywood Junior High School, continuing her studies with Arthur Hoberman.
[1][2] 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.
After this her concert tours became increasingly frequent, as she played with orchestras and gave recitals, many of them with the pianist and chamber musician Samuel Sanders.
On September 21, 2006 she premiered the expanded version of the score with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall, together with percussionist Ayano Kataoka.
[3] Ms. Robison gave concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art every season for over 30 years, at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium as well as in the Medieval Sculpture Court and in the Temple of Dendur with Chamber Orchestra.
She has also collaborated with pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Yefim Bronfman, harpsichordists Kenneth Cooper and John Gibbons, as well as the guitarist Frederic Hand.
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.
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.
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.
In 2007 she made a new English performing version of the texts Schoenberg set in his Pierrot Lunaire — a work dear to her since she had played the flute part with Felix Galimir at Marlboro.
In November–December 2012 she joined Argento New Music Project for a two-week celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Pierrot Lunaire at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.
Critically acclaimed releases have included collaborations with pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yefim Bronfman, Timothy Hester, and Samuel Sanders, harpsichordists John Gibbons and Kenneth Cooper, violinists Krista Bennion Feeney and Calvin Wiersma, bassist John Feeney, percussionists Cyro Baptista and Ayano Kataoka, and guitarists Romero Lubambo, Eliot Fisk, and the late Sergio Brandao.
[3] In 2011 she played Taffanel's Fantasy on Themes from Weber's Der Freischütz and in 2012 Boulez's Sonatine pour Flûte et Piano with Pianist Paavali Jumppanen.
Theodore Presser Company (2011) Transcribed by Paula Robison G. Schirmer, Inc., New York (2003) Universal Edition, Vienna (1997) New Edition, Schott Music Corporation, Mainz (2012) Edited by Paula Robison and Irna Priore European American Music Corporation (1994) European American Music Corporation (1989) University of Michigan Press (2003) "La Serenata": Favorite Italian serenades and love songs arranged for flute and guitar by Paula Robison and Frederic Hand Theodore Presser As Contributor