The Phoenix Symphony plans to wrap its 2025–26 season with a high-wire experiment: Steve Hackman's Stravinsky x Kendrick Lamar, a one-weekend-only mashup that braids Igor Stravinsky's Petrouchka with tracks from Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer Prize-winning album DAMN. The show runs Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Hall, with emcees, a vocalist, drums and bass stacked on top of the full orchestra. An hour before curtain, the lobby turns into a mini block party with a free, high-energy Preludes set from local dance collective Furious Styles Crew. Organizers say they expect tickets to sell out.
The orchestra's show listing describes the piece as a continuous musical journey that reframes Petrouchka's puppet saga through the lens of Lamar's songs and credits Steve Hackman as both composer and conductor. The cast includes vocalist Khalil Overton, emcees Jecorey Arthur and Ajani NaNaBuluku, drummer TaRon Lockett and bassist Bobby Wooten III. According to The Phoenix Symphony, the evening runs about two hours and 15 minutes and wraps with a post-concert meet-and-greet with the artists.
Hackman told PhxSoul that Stravinsky X Kendrick Lamar “combines the music of two of the most explosively brilliant and creative musical voices that this world has ever seen,” while Phoenix Symphony President and CEO Peter Kjome has labeled the season finale “truly unforgettable.” The program is being positioned as a gateway for new and younger listeners and as part of a broader push to expand who feels at home in the concert hall.
Hackman's Remix Strategy
Hackman has been rolling out similar genre-bending projects across the country, using orchestras as his sandbox for rethinking how popular music can live on a concert stage. In April, the Dallas Symphony presented Stravinsky X Kendrick Lamar, a move that KERA News framed as part of Hackman's broader mission to position contemporary artists alongside classical heavyweights and, in the process, widen the symphonic audience.
What To Know Before You Go
Tickets are available through major ticketing platforms and directly from the Phoenix Symphony box office, with the Phoenix dates listed on services such as Songkick. The Preludes set in the lobby is scheduled to kick off at about 6:30 p.m., one hour before the 7:30 p.m. downbeat. Per The Phoenix Symphony, audiences can stick around afterward to meet Steve Hackman and the performers in the lobby. For anyone who has not stepped into Symphony Hall recently, organizers are betting this is the weekend that pulls some new faces through the doors.
