Audio By Carbonatix
Groundbreaking Miami-based hybrid orchestra Nu Deco Ensemble will add yet another marquee name to its already impressive list of collaborators when the Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award-winning socially conscious hip-hop icon Common joins the group for two Florida performances, including a Nov. 12 stop at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall.
“We are honored and excited to welcome Common, a true hip-hop legend and one of the most important artists of his generation, to the Nu Deco stage,” Nu Deco CEO and Co-Artistic Director Sam Hyken tells New Times. “Like Water for Chocolate, Be, and Electric Circus are three of my all-time favorite hip-hop albums and his music has been part of my life for years. This is a collaboration Nu Deco has dreamed about for a long time, and our audience is already thrilled to experience his artistry through the sound and energy of the orchestra.”
Founded in 2015 to “create transformative musical experiences which inspire and connect by building a collaborative, inclusive and sustainable community of artists, students, and audiences,” past collaborators with Nu Deco Ensemble have included Wyclef Jean, Macy Gray, Ben Folds, Kimbra, Stephen Marley, Kishi Bashi, and many others.
In addition to its unique sonic reinterpretations, the organization also runs Nu Deco Imagination, a series of no-cost concerts, workshops, and masterclasses for K-12 students throughout Miami-Dade; the Nu Deco NXT youth ensemble for 7th-12th graders; and Nu Deco Access, which has donated more than five thousand free tickets to “ensure that underserved communities in Miami-Dade county can experience live music.”
Does the Nu Deco Ensemble approach resonate? The more than 15 million global streams of their originals and collaborations would seem to suggest yes.
As an artist who has been able to blur and transcend the boundaries between music, poetry, acting, film, television, modeling, production, and activism throughout the last thirty-five years, Chicago-born Common would seem a prime candidate to paint across Nu Deco Ensemble’s self-described “ultimate canvas for elevation, transformation, and connection through music.” We won’t have long to wait to find out for certain.
Common with Nu Deco Ensemble. 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, at the Knight Concert Hall at Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami; arshtcenter.org; 305-949-6722. Ticket prices range from $70 to $298 and are available here.
