Steve Hackman Conducts His Mahler X Notorious B.I.G. X 2Pac

Performance Run Time: Approximately 85 minutes. Audience Advisory: This performance contains strong language. Conductor and creator Steve Hackman fuses the quintessential music of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur with Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony for a transformative exploration of life, death, legacy, struggle, and triumph. Featuring favorites like “Hypnotize,” “Ambitions as a Ridah,” “California Love,” “Juicy,” “Keep Ya Head Up,” and “Sky’s the Limit,” the performance weaves these artists together in a thoroughly original way, with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 propelling the work forward. The first act begins with the sublime music of Mahler’s Urlicht (primal light), with the voices of Biggie and Tupac rising through the loudspeakers — each rapper prophesying his own death. As the musicians play the fiery first-movement funeral rites of the Mahler symphony, Biggie and Tupac’s songs are interpolated in thematically linked pairs: the hard road they face in “Everyday Struggle” and “Me Against the World”; the ravaging of their communities in “Things Done Changed” and “Ghetto Gospel”; gangster life in “Notorious Thugs” and “2 of Americaz Most Wanted”; and letting loose in “Party and Bullsh*t” and “Hellrazor.” The first movement builds to an explosive peak, with the two songs that epitomize the East-West coast feud that many believe led to both rappers’ deaths, “Who Shot Ya” and “Hit Em Up.” For the second act, the focus turns to social justice and transcendence. After the explosive opening of the Mahler fifth movement, the music slows to a complete halt. Over this stillness, we hear Tupac’s enduring and poignant lyric: “Here on Earth, tell me: what’s a Black life worth?” We hear the painful pleas from both artists for equality and justice in songs like “I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto” and “Changes.” As Mahler’s music whirls and rises to its triumphant climax, we are reminded of the powerful and profound legacy of these two artists, who, twenty-five years after their deaths, are as relevant and essential as ever. About Steve Hackman Composer, arranger, producer, songwriter, conductor, and pianist Steve Hackman is the musical polymath at the center of the most exciting productions in the orchestral space. Whether writing for the concert stage or screen, collaborating with today’s most compelling artists, or contributing to the Oscars and Emmys, Hackman is becoming the first-call original voice shaping today’s most important musical events, scores, and concerts. Hackman has collaborated with Jon Batiste, Charlie Puth, Lizzo, RZA, Wyclef Jean, Steve Lacy, Doja Cat, Moses Sumney, Kanye West (on the opera Mary), and, most recently, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo on the TV special for Wicked on NBC. Hackman’s sixteen barrier-shattering orchestral fusions, which synthesize the great works of classical music with towering figures from contemporary popular music, have led to performances around the world of titles such as Brahms X Radiohead, Beethoven X Beyoncé, and Tchaikovsky X Drake with orchestras in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston, and more than 50 other cities. Expansion into Europe and the Middle East is planned. 2026 will see an ambitious music release schedule from Hackman that will showcase the many sides of his artistry: music spanning from ballet scores that fuse electronics with orchestra, to his concept-art piece THE BRINK, solo piano pieces, and reimaginings of some of the great music of today, including Frank Ocean, Jacob Collier, and Kendrick Lamar. Hackman’s first movie soundtrack was released in November for Netflix’s holiday caper Jingle Bell Heist. Trained classically at the Curtis Institute of Music in conducting, composition, and counterpoint, Hackman musical curiosity from the youngest age also led him to be immersed in alternative, rap/hip-hop, electronic, and art music — which you can hear in every original note he writes today. Follow Steve Hackman at @stevehackmanmusic