When asked why, Robinson wrote,
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 go, 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 bold new ways. Assume the permission to go social! Instrumental music is deep 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. Let’s jump up and down for classical music, and all other musics too!
Love child
Rick Robinson, who has performed with some of the world’s leading conductors, soloists, and composers, originally developed CutTime ensembles, their catalog, and compositions to become arms for the Detroit Symphony to embrace its surrounding communities. He now shares these methods nationally, bending the classical tradition to better serve a wider humanity its own legacy (public domain) via radical empathy. He felt called to mission work by leaders such as Thich Nhat Hanh, his father David E. Robinson II, and conductor Thomas Wilkins among others. CutTime brings both surprise and satisfaction to seed more curiosity, cooperation, and humanitarianism. Seed, then water, and repeat.
Robinson was recognized by Crain’s Detroit Business as a social entrepreneur in 2013, adding that he ”is bringing classical music to the masses— which may be one of the most challenging jobs in all of music.” That year Robinson also won an Arts Challenge Grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to expand the new classical series, Classical Revolution Detroit.
Now known as Mr. CutTime, Robinson has performed residencies and seminars with the Hot Springs Music Festival, Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Mallarme Chamber Players, Gateways Music Festival, Lake George Music Festival and River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. He has presented CutTime to the League of American Orchestras, the New York State Council for the Arts, SphinxCon, and TEDx Detroit. He is interviewed on NPR, Time magazine, and had feature articles in Chamber Music America, International Musician, and Symphony magazine.
Robinson serves on the Board of Chamber Music Detroit. For the last 20+ years he has also served as principal bass of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, an African-diaspora-centered classical music festival that meets biennially at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He enjoys road cycling, sailing, windsurfing, and reading about science and current affairs. He also speaks some German and Spanish.
UPDATE: The COVID-19 pandemic demanded Robinson create eight new works; mostly surprising elegies to help millions cope with personal grief. But in June 2022 Mr. CutTime publicly announced he is soon retiring from playing the bass due to physical difficulties, has relocated to Pittsburgh, PA, and is seeking a managerial partner, like-minded philanthropists, and new musical talent for CutTime to grow despite aging out. Meanwhile, Mr. CutTime will focus on publication sales and rentals, orchestrating his best new compositions, and improving his health.
- Watch the new program Music For Interesting Times at ProMusica Detroit.
- Read the job descriptions available.
- See his 2021 performance videos for ProMusica Detroit.
- Peruse Mr. CutTime’s Gigue Rondo solo oboe part
- Listen to a 2015 interview and concert with WCPN’s The Sound of Applause
- Consider making a donation here to continue his work into the future.
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