Steve Hackman Conducts His Beethoven X Coldplay

Steve Hackman, conductor and creator
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Steve Hackman returns to the Jacobs Music Center with a new orchestral fusion: Beethoven X Coldplay. Beethoven X Coldplay is the merging of two musical giants that deal with universal and humanist themes in their music, and asks the musical question: would Beethoven have found meaning in the music of Coldplay? That notion, perhaps odd-sounding at first, becomes much more compelling when considering the state of the thirty-three-year-old Beethoven as he was composing the Eroica: desperate to prove himself as the eminent composer in Europe, loving but not being loved in return, and despairing as he realized his hearing would someday leave him completely. Beethoven X Coldplay tells this story, transforming the Eroica into a song-cycle/oratorio, weaving the melodies and lyrics of Coldplay into the original Beethoven, and pairing them together based on context and content.

Three world-class vocalists join the full orchestra, and composer/conductor Steve Hackman alternates between conducting the orchestra and playing the piano. Many of Coldplay’s most well-known songs are interpolated, including ‘Yellow’, ‘Viva La Vida’, ‘Clocks’ and ‘The Scientist’.