Mr. CutTime

Orchestra camp

His love of orchestral music began after attending two summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Then, scholarships to attend their high school, Interlochen Arts Academy, brought  him his first private lessons, solo recitals, concerto competitions, and orchestra leadership. He studied bass with R. Park Carmen and Jeff Bradetich before graduating. While at the Cleveland Institute of Music, he studied with the Cleveland Orchestra’s Principal Bass Larry Angell, and won principal positions of his own in the Akron and Canton (OH) symphony orchestras. In summers he trained in what is now the National Repertory Orchestra, and was soon handed principal positions in both the international Spoleto and Aspen Music Festivals. At Aspen he tried busking solos and duets on the street; learning skills of entertainment and resilience.

Robinson then went to Boston to study with the major orchestra’s Assistant Principal Larry Wolfe at the New England Conservatory. There Robinson won principal of the Portland (ME) Symphony and assistant of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, then directed by legendary Star Wars composer John Williams. An ambitious solo recitalist, Robinson began adapting solo works from other instruments, and in 1987 he won the Haddonfield (NJ) Symphony Concerto Competition playing Bottesini’s Concerto No. 2 with Arthur Cohn.

Professional catalysts

Also in 1987 Robinson became a regular sub for both the Boston and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. During a 1989 European tour with Detroit (DSO), he was suddenly elected to full membership to resolve a political demand by two Michigan state legislators for more African-Americans members. While affirmative action controversies raged around him, Robinson calmly assumed a new calling to reach outside Orchestra Hall, launching CutTime Players with eight DSO musicians in 1994.

After a prophetic dream in 1999, Robinson suddenly began composing his “accidental” symphonic score Essay No. 1 (After Sibelius), which DSO read in 2003 and then chose to premiere in 2006, conducted by the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra director Thomas Wilkins. Subsequently, Detroit Free Press music critic Mark Stryker called Robinson “an armchair composer with promise and a taste for fleshy romantic textures and orchestration.” Resolving then to compose with more intention, by 2009 he had composed another dozen powerful movements, half of which seamlessly blend familiar urban dance grooves, jazz and popular references with highly-crafted counterpoint. With these works he launched CutTime Simfonica and concurrently won a Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2010.

That same year, while the DSO Musicians battled a long labor dispute, Robinson first learned about the Classical Revolution movement that began in San Francisco in 2006. They enthusiastically perform or read chamber music repertoire in bars, clubs, and cafes. Consequently, Robinson developed a remarkable technique to direct while playing the bass. Along with some off-the-shelf rock covers, By 2011 CutTime began cutting loose with classical everywhere it was invited, and answering burning-but-unspoken questions to reset its context for those who ignored “formal music.” Organizing Classical Revolution’s Detroit chapter with volunteers at first, Robinson realized he could do much, much more. His mission locked into place; to model designed connections, explorations, inspirations and celebrations of our shared humanity as never before; to fix classical music with a little technology, personality, and entertainment values. By the end of 2011 Robinson chose to quit his coveted DSO position to innovate out among the masses with freelancers, orchestras, music schools, and festivals across the country.

CutTime is the complete expression of that choice; presenting and touring the two ensembles and the pop-up new classical series, and publishing the large catalog of symphonic reductions plus his own popular works, including seven wild orchestrations.
He is working still to codify his effective metaphors and imagination for easy and compelling  introductions into the classical arts.

Detroit Free Press Music Critic Mark Stryker also wrote, “Robinson has been an innovative force in bringing chamber ensembles into non-traditional 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”.