Phoenix Magazine: Composer Steve Hackman Fuses Hip-Hop and Classical Music in ‘The Resurrection Mixtape’

You would be hard-pressed to find two rappers on higher pedestals than The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Yet when composer/conductor Steve Hackman married the ’90s hip-hop legends to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 for a piece he calls The Resurrection Mixtape, which The Phoenix Symphony will perform on May 17-19 at Symphony Hall, he wasn’t surprised it was met with some resistance.

The Mahler symphony tackles life and death, much like Tupac and Biggie prophesied their own untimely demises in their music. However, the opposition to the Los Angeles-based conductor’s fusion of the thematic elements of the Romantic composer’s work with “Everyday Struggle” and “Me Against the World” didn’t stem from the rap community, known to embrace remixes, but the classical world.

“To be a classical musician at the highest level is to dedicate your life to it and have a sort of tunnel vision,” Hackman says. “I think there was just an awareness that needed to be built from the beginning that people even [combined pop and classical music].”

Hackman, who has also fused other classical and contemporary works, including Brahms and Radiohead, says it’s taken some time for classically trained musicians to approach what he does with an open mind. On the other hand, audiences are very receptive to what he’s doing.

“Tupac and Biggie don’t need the help as much as Mahler,” Hackman says. “We’ve had lifelong subscribers approach us after shows and say, ‘We’ve been coming forever, and we’ve been waiting for somebody to do something different.’”