Classical goes clubbing
2010 was a pivotal year for CutTime, officially launching CutTime Simfonica® in May, and the next month Robinson won a Kresge Artist Fellowship for music composition. In August he launched a budget string quartet version of Simfonica (above) just as DSO musicians began what would become a 6-month labor dispute. The free time let him organize a Classical Revolution Detroit (club classical) series with volunteers in December. Dozens of local classical musicians feed the vacuum for party classical in now-non-smoking bars and a coffeehouse. Classical music waded into new territory for the masses. Lately, the active series (OMG Classical) moved to Pittsburgh, PA with PSO and freelance musicians.
New models
Feeling a new calling, Robinson resigned from DSO in 2012, to develop an effective vision of club classical full-time with partners nationwide. This involved more arranging and composing, traveling nationally to present at conferences and recruit musicians to read, rehearse & perform as part of the two CutTime ensembles. Mr. CutTime plays, directs, and shares so many reasons & methods to reset the context of classical around popular culture. Adding light drums in 2013, a sharp beat gives those fleshy textures the crispness the broader public gets excited about, esp. when they can join the fun with toy percussion. CutTime blazed new paths available to all classical musicians and institutions, and called it New Classical.
