Steve Hackman Talks Defying Gravity Concert on Essential Pittsburgh

Listen to conductor/composer/arranger Steve Hackman talk Defying Gravity, the June 6 headline performance for the Three River’s Arts Festival, on the Dollar Bank Mainstage at Point State Park, plus hear him talk classical music, his creative process, and working with the Mendelssohn Choir on Essential Pittsburgh‘s May 31 broadcast.  Stream it here. 

The Defying Gravity concert will include new arrangements of well-known works such as “The Star Spangled Banner” and two exciting new mash-ups that should electrify the TRAF audience: Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia” with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” with the “Confutatis” from Mozart’s Requiem. “With this program I have the opportunity to take advantage of the MCP’s stellar virtuosity and musicianship and present the choral music that I’ve been dreaming of for the past decade—music that crosses the boundaries between genres, stretches the imagination, and speaks to a new audience,” says Hackman.

The concert is FREE to the public!