Steve Hackman hasn’t always been a Taylor Swift fan. But he’s a diehard fan now. And he’s bringing his eponymous “Taylor Swift: The Symphony Era” to the Florida Orchestra on Sept. 12.
Along with a four-piece band and four singers to match Swift’s vocal range. Hackman will also conduct.
He’s a classically trained composer, conductor, arranger, producer and pianist. And that’s just a partial list of what he does.
Hackman has been known to produce mashups of classical masterworks and contemporary artists, such as Brahms and Radiohead, and Kendrick Lamar and Stravinsky.
He called them “Symphony Fused.” And, he said, this work involving Taylor Swift’s works was inevitable.
“It became obvious that if I wanted to stay current with what's happening in pop culture, and if I wanted to be dealing with the most important music of our time, Taylor Swift was an obvious choice,” he said.
Hackman had a little help from his friends, who were “Swifties,” in getting to know her music.
This production started out with 45 Swift songs, but he had to pare that number down. And break it into two parts. The first part will be heard on Sept. 12 with The Florida Orchestra.
“I organized the songs into scenes," Hackman said. "It's almost a theatrical piece in that sense, and the scenes are dedicated to what I find to be a thematic pillar in her writing. So a group of songs about heartbreak, a group of songs about her will to fight, a group of songs about legacy.”
Along the way, Hackman grew to consider Swift a “Bruce Springsteen-level” artist.
A release from the orchestra makes clear this is not a tribute concert. It will span Swift's catalog with songs from her musical eras such as "Love Story," "You Belong with Me, and "The Fate of Ophelia."
The concert on Saturday will feature a chorus from the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and is one of two pop culture concerts The Florida Orchestra is presenting.
The other is “Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in concert. The film will be shown on Sept. 18-19 and the orchestra will play the music.
You can get more details about these programs at The Florida Orchestra website.
