But at the end of this month, he's stepping away from his post — perhaps permanently. He'll be touring with smaller ensembles in an effort to bring classical music to African-American and other underserved communities.
"What I've come to conclude, at least at this point, is that there's something about the large concert hall and the huge number of people, and then separated into a huge number of people in the audience — it's just overwhelming," Robinson says. "And the concert experience itself — if no one greets people or tells a joke or explains anything about the music that they're about to hear in a personal or emotional context, they're just left wondering, 'Well, why am I here? It doesn't seem to make any difference that I'm here.'"
