Nu Deco NXT photo.
Audio By Carbonatix
Youth orchestras play a pivotal role in cultivating artists and leaders, nurturing a sense of belonging and ownership in the music community.
As professional musicians work to remain adaptable, those entering the scene struggle to find their footing in a shifting landscape, looking to more experienced artists for mentorship. Musical mentors know how difficult it is to make a career out of an instrument — and sometimes the most integral lessons they offer have little to do with breath control or finger placement on a fretboard. Youth ensembles and musical mentorship programs like Nu Deco NXT face a twofold challenge: developing resilient musicians and ensuring career-long applicability. In an effort to achieve these goals, NXT’s program features four core pillars: 21st-century performance, musical creation, wellness, and leadership.
The secret behind 21st-century performance, said NXT Director Michelle Skinner, is the creativity and energy the students bring to each rehearsal.
How Nu Deco NXT Trains Miami’s Young Musicians
“We get students from all over Miami with various backgrounds in music,” said Skinner. “We have students that come from a classical background, from a jazz background, from a marching band background, from all over… It’s sort of this beautiful patchwork quilt.”
While auditions open in August of any given year, they are accepted on a rolling basis. Skinner builds the orchestra through February, crafting a unique group of student musicians every season.
The main event of the year at NXT is the Spring Break Intensive. Over the course of one week in March, students engage with the professional musicians of Nu Deco Ensemble in immersive rehearsals and collaborative composition, culminating in a live performance that showcases their yearlong artistic growth. This year, that performance will take place at the Dennis C. Moss Center on March 28.
“I think collaboration is a core tenet of what we do at NXT,” said Skinner. “It’s central to what we do in the professional ensemble, but in a way, it is almost even broader and more flourishing within the youth ensemble. One of the reasons is the musical creation aspect of our program, where the students compose a piece collectively throughout the week.”
Webber Druckerman, a sophomore at New World School of the Arts in downtown Miami, has been with Nu Deco NXT since early 2025. As a jazz-oriented pianist, the orchestral environment was initially unfamiliar to him. Although he has been learning his instrument for nearly a decade, he’s still “just starting.”
In addition to composing a piece with the entire ensemble, he was selected to be part of this year’s writers cohort, a group of four students who create an original work for the ensemble to perform. During the Spring Break Intensive, the orchestra will debut an original piece by the writers’ cohort inspired by the Everglades.
“It’s not just about when you’re playing, it’s also about what’s leading up to your playing,” said Druckerman. “Wellness is a big focus. No matter what level you’re playing at, you’re always going to need those sorts of tools.”
Piper Green, a fellow sophomore at New World, agrees. She has always been a classical musician, often resistant to taking her tuba skills outside the classical sphere. But when she found NXT and encountered the confluence of different sounds in their repertoire, she decided to give it a try.
“At NXT, it’s not so focused on what you do, but also how you do it,” said Green. “It’s not just how it sounds, it’s how it feels.”
The emphasis on wellness is broad, and wellness classes are held as part of each rehearsal. Whether it’s breathing techniques or ways to compose yourself on stage, these classes allow students to see and practice how to ground themselves during a performance in real time.
“Most youth orchestras have one mission, and that’s to prepare for concerts and learn standard orchestral repertoire,” said Skinner. “We do check that box, and then we go beyond it. [The students] are creating their own music, and then exploring wellness, and then they’re also getting opportunities, like internships with our production team and writing team.”
Kristina Villaverde is the VP of Programming and Production at Nu Deco. She encourages in-person experience with production for the students at NXT, who not only come to learn music but to learn technical abilities as well. From being taught how to properly mic a stage to shadowing the audio directors who run live sound, Villaverde has had interns learn stage management, admin, and, soon, industry law.
“We really are trying to create not just the average music program, but a full ecosystem of being able to perform, find jobs, audition for college, and even properly do an invoice as a contractor,” said Villaverde. With a diverse repertoire that includes contemporary, original, and traditional orchestral pieces, Nu Deco NXT serves as an accessible platform for vital music mentorship in the Miami community.
Nu Deco NXT. 2 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Dennis C. Moss Center, 10950 SW 211 Street, Miami; mosscenter.org. Free with RSVP via nu-deco.org/nxt
