STEVE HACKMAN’S BEETHOVEN X COLDPLAY Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 7:30 pm ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL Steve Hackman, conductor Casey Breves, vocalist Gregory Fletcher, vocalist Malia Civetz, vocalist BEETHOVEN
COLDPLAY
Symphony No. 3, I. Allegro con brio “Clocks” “Politik” “42” “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” “Trouble” Symphony No. 3, II. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai
“The Scientist” “Princess of China” “In My Place”
Symphony No. 3, III. Scherzo: “Paradise” Allegro vivace – Trio Symphony No. 3, IV. Finale: Allegro molto – Poco andante – Presto
“Viva la Vida” “Fix You”
The length of this concert is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
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Guest Artist Biographies STEVE HACKMAN A multi-hyphenate music powerhouse and creative visionary, Steve Hackman is a daring voice intent on redefining art music in the 21st century. Trained at the elite level classically but equally adept in popular styles, his breadth of musical fluency and technique is uncanny — he is at once a composer, conductor, producer, DJ, arranger, songwriter, singer, and pianist. He uses these polymathic abilities to create original music of incisive modernism yet rooted in elevated classicism. His groundbreaking orchestral fusions, such as Brahms X Radiohead and The Resurrection Mixtape (Mahler X Notorious BIG X Tupac Shakur), are introducing the symphony orchestra to its future audience; he has conducted these pieces to sellout houses across the country with the orchestras of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Colorado, Phoenix, Nashville, Oregon, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Columbus, Charlotte, Southwest Florida, Alabama, Colorado Music Festival, and the Boston Pops. Hackman has teamed up with some of the biggest pop superstars of today to add a signature virtuosic and classical dimension to their work, including Steve Lacy, Doja Cat, and Andrew Bird. He was trained at the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign and holds degrees in orchestral conducting and piano performance. He recently taught his first course at The Juilliard School entitled “Fusion, Re-imagination and Revelation.” He is active on Instagram under @stevehackmanmusic.
CASEY BREVES Casey Breves performs across the United States, Europe, and Asia as both a pop and classical vocalist. Born and raised in New York City, he sang with the Grammy Award‐winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer after graduating from Yale University, where he was a member of the Whiffenpoofs. He has performed on Saturday Night Live, Good Morning America, and Prairie Home Companion, as a soloist in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, and the Denver Philharmonic, and at Radio City Music Hall as a backup vocalist for Adele. He recently completed a ten-city concert tour of China and Southeast Asia with husband and musical collaborator Sam Tsui. As a singer, songwriter, and content creator, his videos — including original songs, mashups, and collaborations — have received over half a billion views on YouTube and hundreds of millions of streams on Spotify.
GREGORY FLETCHER Gregory Fletcher is a versatile, award-winning artist thriving in the greater Los Angeles area. As a vocalist originally from California’s Inland Empire, he has become a multifaceted musician, obtaining session work in various musical genres including R&B, jazz, gospel, pop, classical, musical theater, and folk. Fletcher has performed around the world, spanning from the Playboy Jazz Festival and Super Bowl LIV to international venues, including St. Paul’s Cathedral 38
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Guest Artist Biographies in London and the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. He has worked alongside world-renowned artists including The Weeknd, Lauren Daigle, Shoshana Bean, Scott Hoying, and Michael Bublé. As a vocalist, Fletcher can be heard on films such as Just Mercy, Bad Boyz 4 Life, Sing 2, Avatar 2, The Harder They Fall, Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red, and Spacejam 2, in addition to television shows like Midnight Mass, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Dear White People, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Wednesday, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Star Wars: The Book Of Boba Fett. Fletcher can be found on tour with The House Jacks, and works as a songwriting and piano teacher at Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA), a private voice and piano instructor, studio musician, and lead vocalist of R&B band MiloBloom, in addition to writing for several Warner Music Group artists. He has had the opportunity to serve as a guest artist, educator, adjudicator, and clinician at numerous Heritage Festivals, SCVA Festivals, and the Fullerton Jazz Festival, as well as the Monterey Next Generation Summer Jazz Camp, and continues to work around the world as an active musician and educator.
MALIA CIVETZ Malia Civetz has performed as a vocal soloist on countless occasions across the United States and around Europe in Steve Hackman’s symphonic mashups. She began working with Steve Hackman in January 2015, performing in Beethoven X Coldplay, and continues to lend her voice to that piece and a growing list of symphonic fusions, including Stravinsky’s Firebird Remix-Response, Tchaikovsky v. Drake, Skull and Bones, The Times They Are-A-Changin’, Bartók v. Björk, and From Beethoven to Beyoncé. Civetz, a Los Angeles-based recording artist and songwriter, signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music after graduating from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music’s Popular Music Program. Post-college, she linked up with powerhouse songwriters Ross Golan and JKash, signing to their newly-created joint label. She initially made waves with her independent single “Champagne Clouds,” which was debuted by Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS FM morning show On Air With Ryan Seacrest. The song quickly earned over 20 million streams and made Taylor Swift’s “Favorite Songs” playlists on both Apple Music and Spotify. She moved on to sign a record deal with Warner Records, making her major label debut in 2020 with her first EP The Flip, featuring hit radio single “Broke Boy.” Civetz unveiled her second EP, Heels In Hand, featuring “Partied Out” and fan-favorite “Sugar Daddy.” Her work has amassed love from numerous publications and has landed spots in major film, TV, and commercial productions. Surpassing 85 million total streams as an artist, Civetz continues to also write for a variety of artists across numerous genres. Her musical accomplishments span well over a decade, with early highlights that include performing as a “Star of Tomorrow” at New York’s Apollo Theater at age 13, having the privilege to sing for President Obama at age 16, and performing in Barry Manilow’s show at Paris Las Vegas at 17.
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The Scientist Nobody said it was easy No one ever said it would be this hard Oh, take me back to the start — Clocks Lights go out and I can’t be saved Tides that I tried to swim against Have brought me down upon my knees Oh I beg, I beg and plead singing You…are… Confusion it never stops Closing walls and ticking clocks Gonna come back and take you home I could not stop that you now know You…are… And nothing else compares — 42 Those who are dead are not dead They’re just living in my head And since I fell for that spell I am living there as well Time is so short and I’m sure there must be something more You thought you might be a ghost — Clocks Home, home, where I wanted to go — Every Teardrop is a Waterfall I turn the music up I got my records on I shut the world outside Until the lights come on Maybe the streets alight Maybe the trees are gone I feel my heart start beating To my favorite song I turn the music up I got my records on From underneath the rubble Sing a rebel song Maybe I’m in the black Maybe I’m on my knees Maybe I’m in the gap Between the two trapezes But my heart is beating And my pulses start Cathedrals in my heart As we saw Oh this light I swear you emerge blinking To tell me it’s alright As we soar walls Sirens are a symphony Every tear’s a waterfall The Scientist Come up to meet you Tell you I’m sorry 40
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You don’t know how lovely you are I had to find you Tell you I need you Tell you I’ll set you apart Tell me your secrets Ask me your questions Oh, let’s go back to the start Running in circles Coming in tails Heads on a science apart Nobody said it was easy It’s such a shame for us to part Nobody said it was easy No one ever said it would be this hard Oh, take me back to the start I was just guessing At numbers and figures Pulling your puzzles apart Questions of science Science and progress Do not speak loud as my heart Tell me you love me Come back and haunt me Oh, and I rush to the start Running in circles Chasing our tails Coming back as we are Nobody said it was easy It’s such a shame for us to part Nobody said it was easy No one ever said it would be this hard Oh, take me back to the start — Princess in China Could’ve been a princess, you’d be a king Could’ve had a castle and worn a ring Once upon a time somebody ran Somebody ran away, sayin’ fast as I can I got to go I got to go Once upon a time we fell apart You’re holding in your hands the two halves of my heart Oh, oh… Oh, oh… Once upon a time we burned bright, Now all we ever seem to do is fight On and on And on and on and on Once upon a time on the same side Once upon a time on the same side in the same game And why’d you have to go Have to go and throw water on my flame Could’ve been a princess, you’d be a king Could’ve had a castle and worn a ring But no You let me go And stole my star La la la…
And you really hurt me Paradise When she was just a girl She expected the world It flew away from her reach So she ran away in her sleep And dreamed of paradise And dreamed of paradise
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Tears stream down your face And I will try to fix you
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Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try to fix you — The Scientist Nobody said it was easy
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Ah…
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Be my mirror my sword Missionaries in a foreign field But that was when I ruled the world I used to rule the world Seas would rise when I gave the word Now in the morning I sleep alone Sweep the streets I used to own
High up above and down below When you’re too in love to let it go But if you never try you’ll never know
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Viva La Vida I hear Jerusalem bells Roman cavalry choirs Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world
Tears stream down your face When you lose something you cannot replace And I will try to fix you
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So lying underneath the stormy sky She knows the sun must set to rise So she dreams of paradise!
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And dreamed of paradise And dreamed of paradise
Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones And I will try, and I will try To fix you
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Life goes on, it gets so heavy The wheel breaks the butterfly Every tear a waterfall In the night, the stormy night She closed her eyes In the night, the stormy night Away she flies
When the tears come streaming down your face When you lose something you can’t replace When you love someone but it goes to waste Could it be worse?
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When she was just a girl She expected the world It flew away from her reach The bullets catch in her teeth
For some reason I can’t explain I know St. Peter won’t call my name Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world — Fix You When you try your best, but you don’t succeed And you get what you want but not what you need When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep Stuck in reverse
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I used to roll the dice Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes Listen as the crowd would sing “Now the old king is dead; long live the king”
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One minute I held the key Next the walls were closed on me And I discovered that my castles stand Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
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I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing Roman cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror, my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can’t explain Once you go there was never Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world It was a wicked and a wild wind Shattered windows and the sound of drums People couldn’t believe what I’d become Oh, who would ever want to be king Oh… MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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Notes by Steve Hackman on Beethoven X. Coldplay Beethoven X. Coldplay is a symphonic fusion of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and the music of Coldplay. The latter’s melodies and lyrics are fused with the former’s music in every possible way, turning the “Eroica” Symphony into an oratorio. I sought to combine Beethoven and Coldplay because of their shared universality. They both confront broad, humanist themes of the human experience in their music: love, loss, tragedy, triumph, joy, pain. Their treatment of these themes is so elegant and perfect that you do not need to be a fan of classical or alternative rock for their music to speak to you. So their universality is two-fold: in the themes they confront and the appeal they therefore create. Shortly after beginning work on this fusion, I realized I was the exact same age Beethoven was when he wrote the “Eroica.” This had a curious effect on me. I started to wonder: what was Beethoven the 35-year-old like? What would it have been like to sit down with him? What would we talk about? And, eventually, I wondered: would he have liked the music of Coldplay? It seems quite a preposterous notion, does it not? But that is only because we by default think of Beethoven as the legendary historical figure, the giant who sits atop our Mount Olympus of composers. I ask you to instead consider Beethoven the human being, as I began to do when I realized the similarity in our ages. Take the following into account: At the time of writing the “Eroica,” Beethoven was still preoccupied with becoming regarded by all as the preeminent composer of his day. He knew his “Eroica” would settle this unequivocally. But though the piece is now mentioned among only a handful of pieces that changed the course of music forever, the premiere was met with ambivalence, with some critics calling it “unintelligible.” Would Beethoven have felt empathy with the Coldplay line, “Nobody said it was easy…no one ever said it would be this hard”? Beethoven had a coarse and unpleasant personality and therefore found sanctuary from the outside world in his music. Would he have appreciated the lyric, “I turn my music up…I shut the world outside…I hear my heart start beating to my favorite song…”? The natural world was also a refuge for Beethoven; he sought in his music to approach that perfection God had exhibited in his creation of the Earth. Can we imagine Beethoven in this Coldplay line: “Lying underneath the stormy sky…he knows the sun must set to rise…so he dreams of Paradise.” Or, “When you love someone and it goes to waste, could it be worse?” Would those lines have meant something to the composer who struggled with romance and was often tortured by unrequited love? And can you imagine the 35-year-old composer, who had recently battled depression to the extent of considering taking his own life, coming to the realization that he was irreversibly going deaf, not being overcome by the lyric, “Tears stream down your face…when you lose something you cannot replace…and I will try to fix you”? We love Coldplay because we feel they are speaking just to us - their songs seem to tell our own stories. So why shouldn’t they tell Beethoven’s? If he was once a person the same age as us, desperate for recognition of his genius, battling his health and depression, longing for love, and “dreaming of paradise,” who is to say he wouldn’t have found escape in a song by Coldplay? Or a 42
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moment of peace knowing that someone had been through exactly what he was going through and had found a way to perfectly articulate it through song? So what is the point of an exercise of this sort? Will changing the lens through which we view these artists and composers provide a new perspective? Will finding connections between them offer a new context? Isn’t it just a little too far-fetched to even think that Beethoven would ever have listened to Coldplay? And even if he had — what is the point in combining his music with theirs? I know my answer. You’re about to hear it.
-Steve Hackman, February 2020
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CELLOS Susan Babini, Principal, Dorothea C. Mayer Cello Chair Nicholas Mariscal, Assistant Principal* Shinae Ra, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair) Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus Madeleine Kabat Peter Szczepanek Peter J. Thomas Adrien Zitoun
CONTRABASSOON Beth W. Giacobassi
BASSES Jon McCullough-Benner, Principal, Donald B. Abert Bass Chair* Andrew Raciti, Associate Principal Nash Tomey, Assistant Principal (3rd chair) Brittany Conrad Teddy Gabrieledes** Peter Hatch* Paris Myers
TRUMPETS Matthew Ernst, Principal, Walter L. Robb Family Trumpet Chair David Cohen, Associate Principal, Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair Alan Campbell, Fred Fuller Trumpet Chair
TIMOTHY J. BENSON Assistant Chorus Director
HARP Julia Coronelli, Principal, Walter Schroeder Harp Chair
FIRST VIOLINS Jinwoo Lee, Concertmaster, Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair Ilana Setapen, First Associate Concertmaster Jeanyi Kim, Associate Concertmaster Alexander Ayers Yuka Kadota Elliot Lee** Ji-Yeon Lee Dylana Leung Allison Lovera Lijia Phang Yuanhui Fiona Zheng
FLUTES Sonora Slocum, Principal, Margaret and Roy Butter Flute Chair Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal Jennifer Bouton Schaub
TROMBONES Megumi Kanda, Principal, Marjorie Tiefenthaler Trombone Chair Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal
2023.24 SEASON KEN-DAVID MASUR Music Director Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair EDO DE WAART Music Director Laureate RYAN TANI Assistant Conductor CHERYL FRAZES HILL Chorus Director Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair
SECOND VIOLINS Jennifer Startt, Principal, Andrea and Woodrow Leung Second Violin Chair Timothy Klabunde, Assistant Principal John Bian, Assistant Principal (3rd chair) Glenn Asch Lisa Johnson Fuller Paul Hauer Hyewon Kim Alejandra Switala** Mary Terranova VIOLAS Robert Levine, Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair Georgi Dimitrov, Assistant Principal (2nd chair), Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Viola Chair Samantha Rodriguez, Assistant Principal (3rd chair)* Alejandro Duque, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair) Elizabeth Breslin Nathan Hackett Erin H. Pipal Helen Reich
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PICCOLO Jennifer Bouton Schaub OBOES Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Milwaukee Symphony League Oboe Chair Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal Margaret Butler
HORNS Matthew Annin, Principal, Krause Family French Horn Chair Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal Dietrich Hemann, Andy Nunemaker French Horn Chair Darcy Hamlin Kelsey Williams**
BASS TROMBONE John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball Bass Trombone Chair TUBA Robyn Black, Principal, John and Judith Simonitsch Tuba Chair TIMPANI Dean Borghesani, Principal Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal PERCUSSION Robert Klieger, Principal Chris Riggs
ENGLISH HORN Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin CLARINETS Todd Levy, Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Clarinet Chair Benjamin Adler, Assistant Principal, Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair* Taylor Eiffert* Madison Freed**
PIANO Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair
E-FLAT CLARINET Benjamin Adler*
PRODUCTION Tristan Wallace, Technical Manager & Live Audio Supervisor Paolo Scarabel, Stage Technician & Deck Supervisor
BASS CLARINET Taylor Eiffert* Madison Freed** BASSOONS Catherine Van Handel, Principal, Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family Bassoon Chair Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal Beth W. Giacobassi
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PERSONNEL MANAGER Françoise Moquin, Director of Orchestra Personnel LIBRARIANS Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, Anonymous Donor, Principal Librarian Chair Matthew Geise, Assistant Librarian & Media Archivist
* Leave of Absence 2023.24 Season ** Acting member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra 2023.24 Season
