This preview has been provided by the North Carolina Symphony.
The North Carolina Symphony will present music from one of classical music’s greats, combined with the songs of one of rock’s most enduring bands as it presents the special concert “Symphonic Mashup: The Music of Radiohead Meets Brahms.” The performance will take place Wednesday, June 5, at 8 p.m., in Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh, and intertwines Brahms’ First Symphony (1882) with music from Radiohead’s landmark 1997 album “OK Computer.”
“Although Radiohead and Brahms might not ever be mentioned in the same sentence, I think concertgoers will be surprised by how seamlessly those two sound worlds blend together in this symphonic ‘mash-up,’” said Symphony Artistic Administrator Amy Russell. “This will be a unique chance to hear the music of Radiohead brought to life by a full symphony orchestra, and to hear your North Carolina Symphony in a way you had never imagined before.
In addition to all four movements of the Brahms, eight songs from the landmark Radiohead album are performed by three vocalists, both in solo and harmony. Steve Hackman created the new mashup, and will conduct the performance. To complement this amazing musical synthesis, concertgoers will be able to sample delicious food before the concert from an array of Raleigh area food trucks.
With the mashup, Hackman says that the envelope of what is possible and permissible is constantly pushed, with Radiohead songs being superimposed above Brahms’ music. Radiohead’s melodies are altered to coexist with Brahms’ harmonies, and departures from the score accommodate journeys into a new compelling and captivating world.
Composer, conductor, arranger, producer, pianist and singer/songwriter Hackman combines inspiration with virtuosity to create elegance in sound. His work since 2009 is indicative of this bending of genres – producing, arranging/composing and conducting performances that intricately interweave the music of Radiohead with Brahms, Coldplay with Beethoven, and Bon Iver with Aaron Copland, among others. His works for artists like Time for Three, The Five Browns, Michael Cavanaugh, Arlo Guthrie, Chanticleer, and Joshua Radin have been performed by most of the major orchestras in America and in concert halls across the world.
Tickets to “Symphonic Mashup: The Music of Radiohead meets Brahms” with the North Carolina Symphony are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the concert. For more information, go to the North Carolina Symphony’s website at www.ncsymphony.org, or call 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.
Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh.
About the North Carolina Symphony
Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony performs over 175 concerts annually to adults and school children in more than 50 North Carolina counties. An entity of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the orchestra employs 65 professional musicians, under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn, and Resident Conductor William Henry Curry.
Headquartered in downtown Raleigh’s spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts and an outdoor summer venue at Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C., the Symphony performs about 60 concerts annually in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area. It holds regular concert series in Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington—as well as individual concerts in many other North Carolina communities throughout the year—and conducts one of the most extensive education programs of any U.S. orchestra.
