CutTime Productions

Everyone deserves classical music.
So CutTime® makes it hot and juicy!

Powerful classical concerts take place in quiet, meditative settings for middle-to-highbrow audiences. But what about everyone else? Where are the fun, introductory and lowbrow classical music experiences for the rest of us? Where are the new urban symphonies making America sound together, as the word symphony implies?

CutTime answers this call with two composer-led ensembles, crafty new compositions and rich arrangements, all with a mission to serve a wider public.  Because we believe all humanity deserves the magic, power, and beauty of classical music, we have brought partial symphonies to churches and schools, homes and offices, plus bars, clubs, and cafes. We have performed on streets, in alleyways, in homes and backyards, placing symphonic hits everywhere we can, often mixing classical with rhythm, rock, pop, jazz, and soul. Our ensembles hire today’s hot classical players for dynamic, hosted programs that may launch an era of new classical or club classical described on this website.

While 2/3 of Americans today might avoid all things classical, CutTime introduces this “ancient” tradition of written music as a powerful, flexible, and emotional tool that still works for self-discovery, self-expression, visiting other cultures, and social glue. CutTime concerts create strong bridges for all music lovers to cross. Many join the fun on toy percussion!

First created within the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) by bassist-arranger-composer Rick Robinson, CutTime’s two ensembles, CutTime Players and CutTime Simfonica® work to Americanize the concert experience and the classical sonata. We design clever programs for veteran, insider audiences, or for a wider, commercial public. While the classical music industry needs to reverse audience age-out, CutTime has been clearing a path for classical musicians to begin working in popular culture. Since leaving his DSO position in 2012, Robinson has nearly completed his vision and new music for lasting cultural change within the industry. He experimented for nearly 1,000 gig hours to learn what works or not. Consider this website a book to compliment Sarah Robinson’s (no relation) Clubbing for Classical Musicians.

CutTime fans the hidden flame for classical music with lively symphonic hits, plus Robinson’s emotional, urban-classical compositions, tastefully fusing jazz, rock, Latin, and soul elements with sexy contrapuntal textures for contemporary dramas. Hosted shows are lively and educational with key listening information to make wordless music meaningful and personal. Performances also feature high musicianship and local players. CutTime also offers private lessons and listening parties, to make sense of what is for most Americans initially mysterious, foreign and elitist. CutTime fans are curious music lovers who want to know what classical can do for them. CutTime dares to answer in brief, lay terms. Because what good is this music if it can’t also work outside of quiet settings, arts bubbles, churches and education?

As much as I love it, classical music is usually offered in dry, polite settings; places some of my friends just never go. It’s time to cut it loose in places they do visit, so it might belong to a wider American public. I call on musicians worldwide to discover more meaning by serving our art and other local communities in truly bold ways! Assume the permission to make classical music partly social!  Instrumental music is animated fantasy. It’s more about the players and listeners than long-gone composers. But new listeners need our help. Let’s create the right conditions to be heard outside of our concert sanctuaries and people. Let’s jump up and down for classical music. It deserves it. And let’s mix with other musics too!
– Rick Robinson, Founder of CutTime Productions

Robinson has been an innovative force in bringing chamber ensembles into nontraditional venues and classrooms, mixing it up with a variety of creative repertoire and generally proving that classical music belongs not on the fringes of contemporary culture but at the heart of everyday life.
– Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press Music Critic

Robinson is bringing classical music to the masses— which may be one of the most challenging jobs in all of music.
– Amy Haimerl, Crain’s Detroit Business

From the menu above, you can…

• See the new program “Music For Interesting Times” by Rick Robinson, CutTime Simfonica® with guest filmmaker Brandon Walley.
• Commemorate internally the tragedy of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting by watching: Let the Children Play Part 1 and Let the Children Play Part 2.
• Watch CutTime Simfonica play Duke and Mercer Ellington’s Martin Luther King from Three Black Kings.
• Discover why classical music is overdue for alternatives like these.
• Enjoy tonal new classical music that often blends rock, jazz, gospel, Latin, and folk elements with dramatic counterpoint.
  
• Learn about the 2018 Austin, TX, bombing victim and high school bassist Draylen Mason.
• Support our new, edu-taining tradition of classical music that better connects the wider public via Fractured Atlas.
• Listen to the high quality on Robinson’s SoundCloud feed.
• See what positions are open at CutTime Productions. Could you be the next Mz./Mr. CutTime?
• Latest news – Robinson and CutTime® have successfully launched in Pittsburgh, PA in 2023! Read this newsletter.