Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Names Steve Hackman as Creative Director of FUSE@PSO Series

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is proud to announce FUSE@PSO, a new series of early evening concerts at Heinz Hall conducted by Steve Hackman.

FUSE@PSO aims to - with deliberate intent and meticulous design - present re-imagined classical masterworks that honor the source music while moving boldly in a new direction.

At each FUSE concert, Hackman and the Pittsburgh Symphony will perform a genre-bending piece that synthesizes a classical composer's work with a modern artist's. Contemporary music production techniques such as remixing and mashing-up are applied to classical masterpieces, resulting in a relevant yet never-before-heard "hybrid" sound.

The series launches on Wednesday, June 24 with Brahms+ Radiohead, Hackman's own mash-up of the Brahms First Symphony and Radiohead's OK Computer. Additional FUSE@PSO dates include October 7, January 27, 2016 and March 9, 2016.

Hackman is a conductor, composer, arranger, producer, pianist and singer/songwriter who draws upon his wide-ranging musical technique to craft virtuosic, cross-genre works that intrigue the established audience and engage an excited new one. He is the music director of the "Mash-Up" series at the Colorado Music Festival and the former co-creative director of the Happy Hour series with the Indianapolis Symphony, where he developed a new type of concert experience by producing, arranging/composing and conducting compelling presentations that blended classical with pop.

As creative director of the FUSE@PSO series, Hackman is in residence in Pittsburgh through the 2015-2016 season and will be performing throughout the area as a soloist/DJ and with ensembles of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians.

"My goal with the FUSE@PSO series is to share with classical and popular music lovers unique re-interpretations that will challenge and thrill them, help listeners on both sides become fans of music they've never heard before, and introduce an entirely new audience to one of the finest symphony orchestras in the world," said Hackman.

Along with a fresh take on the concert hall experience, FUSE@PSO also provides attendees with a vibrant social atmosphere before the concert with pre-concert beats from local DJs, happy hour priced drinks, food and socializing with musicians and fellow music-lovers.

Hackman studied conducting and counterpoint/composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He subsequently studied conducting at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen and received further instruction in orchestration from the prolific Broadway orchestrator and composer William Brohn. He served as the assistant conductor of the Reading Symphony for two seasons, where he led subscription, family, education and New Year's Eve programs.

FUSE@PSO events begin at 5 p.m. with the concert starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and are on sale now for the June 24event. Tickets can be purchased online at pittsburghsymphony.org/fuse, via phone at 412-392-4900 or in person at the Heinz Hall Box Office.

Additional support for this concert is provided by Common Plea Catering.

Conductor, composer, arranger, producer and songwriter Steve Hackman is increasingly in demand as one the most compelling artists contributing to a new landscape in classical music. Fluent in both classical and popular repertoire, he crafts virtuosic, cross-genre works and performances that intrigue the established audience and engage an excited new one.

Active across the country as a guest conductor of major symphony orchestras, Hackman presents programs he architects which synthesize orchestral and pop masterworks. His Brahms V. Radiohead interweaves the Brahms' 1st Symphony with Radiohead's seminal album OK Computer. He has presented it with the Indianapolis Symphony, Florida Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony and Colorado Music Festival orchestra. His Beethoven V. Coldplay is a re-imagined Eroica symphony, transforming it into an oratorio using the themes of Coldplay.

In 2015, Hackman continues his role of music director of the Mash-Up series at the Colorado Music Festival. The summer season will include the world premiere of his newest creation Bartok V. Björk, a piece which fuses the former's Concerto for Orchestra with the latter's first three albums. Also being presented is a re-worked version of Hackman's first ever large-scale mash-up Copland V. Bon Iver. Last season's highlights included the premiere of hisBeethoven V. Coldplay and collaborations with My Brightest Diamond, Aoife O'Donovan, Olga Bell (of Dirty Projectors) and San Fermin.

From 2009-2013, Hackman served as co-creative director of the Happy Hour at the Symphony Series with the Indianapolis Symphony, where, along with co-artistic directors Time For Three (TF3), he pioneered a new type of concert experience by producing, arranging/composing and conducting compelling presentations that blended classical with pop. He returns as guest conductor regularly, most recently in spring 2015 premiering a program commissioned by the ISO and Time for Three which combined symphonic movements of Mozart, Beethoven and Dvo?ák with five contemporary pop songs.

Hackman is the creative director of :STEREO HIDEOUT:, a music brand that represents the removal of barriers between classical and popular music and the skillful blending of the two. In 2014, he released the debut :STEREO HIDEOUT: album "The Radio Nouveau," along with several music videos. The album was mixed in London by Gareth Jones (Grizzly Bear, Depeche Mode) and mastered in Brooklyn by Joe Lambert (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors). The follow-up album "Down with the Classics" is due in late 2015.

Hackman's work as a composer and arranger has met with considerable success. The string trio Time for Three and choral ensemble Chanticleer present his works as their showpieces; TF3's "Chaconne in Winter" highlights their recent release on Universal Records, and Chanticleer's "Wait Fantasy" can be heard on their recent album "Someone New." He enjoys a continuing relationship as an arranger for Time for Three, and most recently contributed five new mash-ups to their solo repertoire, two pieces to their holiday EP "Yuletime" (Universal) and arranged the music for their appearance on ABC's hit show "Dancing with the Stars." Hackman's orchestrations for artists like Time for Three, The Five Browns, Michael Cavanaugh, My Brightest Diamond, Arlo Guthrie, Aoife O'Donovan and Joshua Radin have been performed by nearly all the major orchestras in America. This season marked his first collaboration with the world-renowned Tallis Scholars.

Hackman was a four-year member, producer and musical director of the a capella group The Other Guys at the University of Illinois, a group that under his direction placed runner-up in the International Competition of Collegiate Acapella at Avery Fisher Hall. He is a prolific songwriter, having written hundreds of songs and releasing several albums of original music. His song "The Pendulum Song" was chosen among tens of thousands as a finalist in the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and he has also received honorable mention in the Billboard songwriting competition. He has entertained as a dueling piano player at Howl at the Moon piano bar in Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville. In season 7 of American Idol, Hackman was one of 164 contestants chosen from more than 150,000 to attend Hollywood Week. He finished in the top 64.

Hackman studied conducting under Otto-Werner Mueller and counterpoint/composition under Dr. Ford Lallerstedt at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He subsequently studied conducting with David Zinman at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen and received further instruction in orchestration from the prolific Broadway orchestrator and composer William Brohn ("Miss Saigon," "Wicked," "Ragtime" and countless others). He served as the assistant conductor of the Reading Symphony for two seasons, where he led subscription, family, education, and New Year's Eve programs.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 119 years, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" in 1944 and John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground breaking PBS series "Previn and the Pittsburgh." The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900-including 36 international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America-the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras.

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org

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