Composer, conductor and producer Steve Hackman is breaking down barriers between the classical and pop music worlds, one orchestral reimagination at a time.
And for the first time, the Chicago-area native will return to his home city to lead the performance of his latest cross-genre work, “Beethoven X Beyoncé.” The 75-minute piece, performed by the Chicago Philharmonic and guest musicians, is a two-act fusion of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 with 15 Beyoncé songs.
On the surface, the show seems like a no-brainer. Beethoven’s music has endured for centuries. Beyoncé is one of the most popular musicians ever. But Hackman said he faced pushback from the start.
“It was very difficult in the beginning because of just the disruptive nature of the work and how shocking it was to the industry,” he said.
Some of that pushback came from the musicians themselves.
“I was used to standing in front of an orchestra to conduct, let’s say, just the Beethoven symphony, and having a collaborative relationship, having a mutual exchange of energy where I’m giving and they’re giving back, and we’re just making music together,” Hackman added. “When I started to combine Beethoven and Beyoncé, they shut down. Now, I’m standing up there conducting, and it’s active resistance and that’s not a great feeling.”
Despite these hurdles, Hackman also had a number of staunch advocates, angels and supporters like other musicians, board members and staff members who encouraged him to keep working. And in the end, audiences showed up. Concerts sold out. Past successful fusion works include “Brahms X Radiohead,” “Bartók X Björk” and “Beethoven X Coldplay.” The music persisted because people wanted to hear it.That comes as no surprise for Hackman, who says a large part of his mission is to meet audiences where they are.
“In the classical music world, we just need to address the problem of the composition of our audience being representative of our communities. Bringing in new audiences, building bridges to audiences, meeting them where they are… that work needs to be done,” Hackman began. “Let’s say we see you, we hear you, we understand some of the music that you love. Let me, as an extension of an olive branch, take that music and then do it our way, and then we have some common ground that we can meet on.”
Crafting a work like this does not come easy. Luckily, Hackman loves both Beethoven and Beyoncé equally. It is that deep knowledge of their bodies of work that allows him to understand how to develop a sonic mashup of their sounds.
Beethoven’s symphony, as the main long-form work, serves as the structural roadmap. From there, Hackman identified the seams in Beethoven’s symphony where something could be threaded.
“I know where they lie harmonically, rhythmically,” Hackman recalled.
Later, the creative work morphed into an improvisatory process. Hackman sat at the piano, played through the symphony, and thought through his list of nearly 40 Beyoncé songs to potentially include. Which ones might work? Which one can he start to improvise and work in? And how can he lay the themes of the music on top of one another?
The roots of “Beethoven X Beyoncé” began with the second movement of the Beethoven symphony and Beyoncé’s “Halo.” Sonically, it is an emotional anchor, a moment beginning with tragedy and heart-wrenching beauty transitioning into light. “(Halo) talks about saviors and angels, and in that case, it’s a romance. But you can interpret that in a more broad way,” Hackman said. “I was thinking of Beethoven and his music being his savior and his angel. And so that was more of a thematic pairing.”
Additional songs in the show include “Love Drought” as well as “Run the World (Girls),” “Love On Top,” “Sorry,” “ Formation” and “Crazy in Love.”
“She depicts love in so many different ways, so incredibly, so vividly, so joyfully,” Hackman added. “We are all just in the stratosphere by that point.”
To accompany these songs, Hackman also invited three vocalists to perform. That doesn’t mean they’ll do straight-up covers of Beyoncé’s music. These songs are thoroughly reimagined with the vocalists essentially singing Beethoven’s music with Beyoncé’s words.
“I’m not interested in pyrotechnic, virtuosic voices just for the sake of being an extraordinary vocalist. I’m interested in who has something to say, who has a perspective on this music,” said Hackman.
The result is a feat of cross-pollination where classical fans can discover Beyoncé and pop fans can discover orchestral music. Of course, this doesn’t supplant classical musicians playing the Beethoven 7th Symphony the way it was written. However, it can serve as a wedge to open the door for others to walk through. By carrying them together on equal footing, Hackman’s work reveals something about the music that audiences — both in the pop and in the classical world — might not have considered.
Reflected in each other’s light, they can foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the music. And eventually, a deepened personal connection to it, too.
As Hackman reiterated, “This work is built on the foundation of a very simple principle: that great music is great music, regardless of genre, regardless of the ritual surrounding it, regardless of who is playing it, what we wear, all of these things. If it’s great, it’s great.”
Britt Julious is a freelance critic.
7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph; tickets $51.80-$86.30 at harristheaterchicago.org
