Rick Robinson
CutTime Simfonica with Urban Requiem Project
This variety programs create a conversation between the present moment and the past, recognizing that everyone owns and deserves the public domain of classical music while needing some social context, drums and shouting to make it real. This performances will feature several hit compositions by the black composer Rick Robinson, including "Highland Park, MI: City of Trees," "Pork 'n Beans," "Social Suicide" from "Art As A Weapon," and "Stuck" from "Phantom Detroit," and yet more. There will also be many dance works by Bach, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Joplin, William Grant Still, Duke Ellington and others. Feel free to join along shaking sanitized toy percussion!
Mobile Concert:
Friday, July 24th 7-9pm in Grandmont Rosedale
This pop-up, mobile concert brings the artist directly to the Detroit neighborhood of Grandmont Rosedale and is meant to be intimate, viewed from the porch, the front yard, or from the comfort and safety of one’s home. The recorded concert can be enjoyed below or at Sidewalk Detroit’s Youtube Channel.
CutTime Simfonica® spun off the Detroit Symphony Orchestra when founder-composer-bassist Rick Robinson quit the DSO after 22 years to independently focus on making classical and symphonic music actually work for a broader public. The ensemble features string instrumentals, sometimes in collaboration with guest artists, and classical music conventions mixing effectively with urban pop, soul, gospel, jazz, experimental improvisations and many other styles of music. Simfonica has partnered with the Urban Requiem Project since 2017 to add street poetry and other spoken word styles that "commemorate the industrial century of Detroit." Founded by the artist-poet-historian Virgil Taylor, who started it with students of the Youthville program, the Urban Requiem Project usually features slam poet Andre Johnson (aka "Kevlar Afrika") and Claretha "Peace" Bell. Last year they collaborated to create "Phantom Detroit," a 25-minute work exploring issues of gentrification in the city for The Kresge Foundation's biannual Art X Detroit series. In collaborations with the Urban Requiem Project poets, CutTime Simfonica continues to create urgency behind the context set by the spoken word of black artists.
