Outside Cultural Event 4: Tchaikovsky X Drake

For the final outside cultural event, we went into the city for a performance with the BSO, three singers, and a rapper. Initially, we were really only told the title of the performance, Tchaikovsky X Drake. I was a bit skeptical: how do you combine music that is so different? I was also excited. As a classical musician and hip-hop fan, I was interested to see how one would merge artists that are separated by almost a century. Moreover, Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite classical composers and one of the main reasons I fell in love with music. While learning his famous Violin Concerto in D major, my violin teacher told me about his life, which was pretty depressing. He was severely oppressed due to his homosexuality while living in Russia and had lost a lot of family from an early age. While these aspects of his life are definitely translated in his works, his music also has an air of pride, strength, and passion. Especially playing his pieces, you can truly get a feel for what he tries to express, even if it is not through words. Although I don't listen to Drake a whole lot, I was really interested to see how they would fuse hip-hop and classical music.

I was not disappointed. The performance perfectly combined fifteen Drake songs with Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. The orchestra sounded amazing; the bass and percussion perfectly merged the orchestra with the other artists; the vocalists were outer worldly; the rapper perfectly brought together the message both Tchaikovsky and Drake wanted to bring to the world through their art: started from the bottom now we're here. By tying together this song with the most triumphant parts of the symphony, the performance showcased the beauty of art and expression. It is universal that there will always be some sort of suffering in our lives, we can't really control it. However, learning to choose to make something out of our experiences is something we do have control over. I left this event with a greater appreciation for how music and human thought can transcend time. 

Concert Ready!