The Accidental Composer

The string and percussion ensemble CutTime Simfonica (CTS) came to life over 10 years both in and around the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO).

Early in his career transcribing hit symphonic scores for the pocket-orchestra CutTime Players, CutTime® founder Rick Robinson had a vivid dream in 1999 with strong new music. He immediately captured this and by 2003 completed a 20-minute work for large orchestra, the Essay No. 1 (After Sibelius). It was read by DSO publicly in 2003, and won a full premiere in 2006 with Thomas Wilkins conducting.

Following the premiere Detroit Free Press music critic Mark Stryker wrote that Robinson was “an armchair composer with promise and a taste for fleshy, romantic textures and orchestration.” Only then did Robinson attempt to live up to that “promise,” still self-taught, and begin composing more deliberately with the idea of launching a more practical ensemble of strings. The results were two dozen funky-romantic works that paint colorful bridges between the symphony and the rest of the world.

Watch CutTime Simfonica’s 2021 program at ProMusica Detroit.

CutTime Simfonica 2010

CutTime Simfonica launched in 2010 with these celebrated DSO musicians:

Geof Applegate, violin I
Kimberley Kennedy Kaloyanides, violin II
Jim VanValkenburg, viola I
Caroline Coade, viola II
Robert DeMaine, cello
Rick Robinson, bass