PSO won’t retain conductor of FUSE series

Concerts are aimed at younger crowd

Before last Wednesday, Frances Todd Stewart had never started a petition. But there she was, standing in the rain outside Heinz Hall, leading a charge to — of all things — keep a conductor in Pittsburgh.

Even classical music breeds activists. Ms. Stewart, the president of Creative Products International, gathered nearly 125 signatures from concertgoers at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s latest FUSE@PSO concert.

Her goal: to persuade the orchestra to retain FUSE’s creative director, Steve Hackman, who no longer has a title or a contract with the symphony.

“I recently learned that Steve’s contract may change in this new calendar year,” Ms. Stewart, 61, wrote in a follow-up email to symphony president and CEO Melia Tourangeau and others. “Like so many fans, I assure you, he would be sorely missed. Attending his concerts are highlights in my year.”

The PSO launched FUSE, a crossover concert series aimed at the millennial and Gen X audiences that the orchestra has struggled to attract, in June 2015. The project was centered on Mr. Hackman, its young and telegenic creative director, who arranged and conducted mash-ups of classical and popular music — think Brahms and Radiohead, or Tchaikovsky and Drake.

Now, however, his partnership with the PSO is in doubt. The symphony plans to continue FUSE, but Mr. Hackman, 36, will not be leading it. The conductor, who lives in Los Angeles, could appear with the PSO in future concerts, symphony leadership said, although no shows have been booked.

Symphony management has said that the PSO ended the relationship with Mr. Hackman because of financial considerations. After fundraising, the orchestra lost $16,844 for the first five concerts in the FUSE series, senior vice president and COO Christian Schornich said, and box office data showed poor crossover attendance at other FUSE events or

non-FUSE concerts.

“FUSE@PSO did mean for us a significant financial loss, so we are looking to develop this brand further,” he said.

Mr. Hackman’s fusions of classical masterworks with pop music have often proved controversial. PSO musicians have expressed concerns with his conducting skills and taken issue with the concept of altering classical masterworks. One critic referred to his Brahms/Radiohead mash-up as “breathtaking cultural violence done to both OK Computer and to the First Symphony.”

“I know that what I do is controversial: it sparks debate and arouses strong feelings, both for and against,” Mr. Hackman said in a statement. “I respect that the PSO management has now decided to go in a different direction, and remain grateful to have had six wonderful concerts with the outstanding musicians of the PSO.”

Yet Mr. Hackman has inspired passionate followers, too, and his supporters say the pop-classical arrangements are ideal ways to introduce classical music and the PSO to newcomers.

“I’m so proud of the PSO for having him, and I know this is an opportunity for our city to continue to be a cultural leader, because we have a fantastic symphony,” said Ms. Stewart, a Hackman megafan, who once changed an international business trip in order to attend one of his concerts at Heinz Hall. “But if you’ve never been exposed, how are you going to know?”

“Let’s just say that what Steve does is controversial, and that some people really liked it, and some people really didn’t like it, within the PSO organization,” said Robert Moir, an industry consultant who represents Mr. Hackman and brought the conductor to Pittsburgh when he served as the PSO’s senior vice president of artistic planning and audience engagement.

The PSO plans to revamp FUSE, focusing on collaborations with popular bands and artists. It has not announced next season’s lineup; no concerts are scheduled for the rest of 2017.

“I personally like Steve Hackman as a person, and it is no doubt that he loves music and is incredibly passionate about the PSO and classical music,” music director Manfred Honeck said in an email. “What he does is interesting and inventive, and this has been an interesting initial experiment here in Pittsburgh. That being said, in this critical time, we have to look at audience numbers and the financial picture across all products.”

Rumors have swirled around the orchestra that pushback from individual PSO musicians or Mr. Honeck brought about the changes to FUSE, a notion that Mr. Schornich denied.

The change “was not based on any artistic concerns, if any, by, A, the music director or, B, the musicians,” Mr. Schornich said. “Feedback is very important to us, but there’s a lot more that plays a role in moving our product lines forward,” he added.

Musicians committee chairman Micah Howard said orchestra management did ask for feedback about Mr. Hackman from the players, based on one of their regular surveys of conductors, but that the musicians played no role in the decision.

“It is not the musicians who made this decision,” Mr. Howard, a bassist, said. “It was management, and I do believe they have financial reasons for it. And it may be true that there were musicians that were very outspoken about this, but frankly it isn’t their decision, and it isn’t Manfred’s either.”

Attendance at Mr. Hackman’s six FUSE concerts has varied. The symphony issued 762 tickets to the lowest- performing concert, “Firebird Remix,” while the most successful show, the Tchaikovsky/Drake mash-up in March, was a sellout at the 2,700-seat Heinz Hall.

“The initial concept was to make a three-year commitment, so that they wouldn’t pull the plug on the project because it was still building an audience,” Mr. Moir said. “It takes time to establish a brand and build broad audience awareness and support, and the idea of three years was to make a commitment to see it through the growing pains.”

The young conductor ultimately signed two oneyear contracts. Mr. Schornich said that the threeyear commitment was to FUSE@PSO, and not to Mr. Hackman. “FUSE@PSO and Steve Hackman are not the same thing,” Mr. Schornich said.

What’s more, he said, it became clear to the symphony after a few concerts that FUSE, under its original design, would never break even — and breaking even, in light of the symphony’s financial troubles, is the aim for the reformed FUSE series.

“We had a net revenue of only $4,000,” Mr. Schornich said of the sold-out Tchaikovsky/ Drake show, “which gives you an indication of how much we lose in other concerts.”

The new arrangement, Mr. Schornich said, has a better chance of succeeding financially because the symphony would not be contractually committed to one artist over a long period.