Music

Presented in partnership with the Lincoln Road BID, this live performance will also be live streamed from the Colony Theatre and explores the key sources of musical influences from the Old and New World and their musically rich traditions that have profoundly shaped and characterized American popular music. Featuring American composers George Gershwin, Jessie Montgomery, and Nick Omiccioli plus the symphonic reimaginations of the music by Marvin Gaye. There will also be an opportunity to ask the orchestra questions during a Q&A session at the end! Please note that this concert and accompanying resources are intended for and available only to K-12 educators. An email affiliated with an educational institution will be required to access this performance.

Nu Deco comes to Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center with a return collaboration with multi-Grammy winner Wyclef Jean. In addition, Nu Deco will welcome internationally acclaimed and Grammy Award-nominated pianist Terrence Wilson for a performance of George Gershwin’s evergreen classic “Rhapsody in Blue”. The program also includes a reimagination of Michael Jackson’s landmark album Thriller in celebration of its 40th anniversary, as well as Sam Hyken's Chanukah 5776.

Our final performance brings us back to the Adrienne Arsht Center, where we will be featuring "Blume" by Sam Hyken and Jason Matthews, as well as "Symphonic Metamorphosis" by genre-bending German composer Paul Hindemith. We're also thrilled to perform our reimagining of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the 1998 debut solo album by the influential and acclaimed artist Lauryn Hill. This program will also feature the world premiere of an orchestral commission from composer Derrick Hodge. Hodge, the recipient of two Grammy awards, combines an array of genres ranging from jazz to soul to hip hop, creating a sound entirely his own. This program also includes a special guest collaborator yet to be announced

We are thrilled to be featuring works from contemporary composers and artists during this season's second performance at the Miami Beach Bandshell! The program will include "Penelope", the heart-wrenching song cycle by composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, "Roadrunner" by John Adams, recipient of multiple Grammy awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Music, an original work by the ensemble as well as an inspired suite from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Fleetwood Mac. Pop-rock band X Ambassadors will be joining us for a special collaboration.

Returning to our partnership with the Adrienne Arsht Center, we will be featuring a special collaboration with past collaborators Colombian duo Monsieur Periné. Despite their origins in Bogotá, NPR describes the Latin Grammy-winning group as embracing "1920s-era, guitar-driven jazz from the U.S.", bringing a blend of cultures and influences to the Nu Deco stage. The night will also include Sergei Prokofiev’s dramatic and Shakespearean-inspired ballet score "Romeo and Juliet", in addition to a new reimagining of The Beatles' legendary studio album Abbey Road.

Praised for his “unmistakable virtuosity,” University of Miami professor Svet Stoyanov is a driving force in modern percussion (The New York Times). He joins NWS Percussion Fellows in a transfixing program that is uniquely Miami. Michael Tilson Thomas—NWS’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate—evokes the sands of the tropics with a marimba-filled feature that draws on his own influences: Schubert, Beethoven and James Brown. Emmy Award-winning master of composition Garth Neustadter awakens sensibilities with his Seaborne, an urgent account of our endangered oceans that comes to life with by filmmaker Kjell Van Sice.

Join esteemed conductor William Eddins, Music Director Emeritus of the Edmonton Symphony, for this very special performance of orchestral works of Black American artists during the Harlem Renaissance. These performances are part of "I Dream a World: The Harlem Renaissance in Europe", which will focus on the artists who found success in Europe between 1917 and 1946, exploring the impact of World War I, the rise and spread of Nazism, and World War II on the spread of the Harlem Renaissance ideology and Black music in Europe.

NWS closes out 2022 with an afternoon of shimmering chamber works from northern climates, including by Scandinavia's finest. Composer Jean Sibelius is often credited with putting Finland on the musical map. His famed romantic melodies are center stage in his Serenata trio for strings. Danish composer Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet, one of the most famous works of the genre, exudes his signature personality and charm. Norway is represented by Edvard Grieg’s lush melodies for strings and Mogens Andresen’s captivating modern dances for large brass ensemble. Ann Southam moves between senses of urgency and rest in her Quintet for piano and string quartet, while Jō Kondō creates a unique sonic landscape in An Insular Style.

New World Symphony Fellows invite you to a special concert of their own design. Celebrate the Mexican American experience through the Mayan creation story, which recounts God’s attempts in the formation of Man using clay, stone, wood and corn. El Maíz de mi Gente is an exploration of the evolution of Mexican music and visual art from the “Imagined Aztec Music” of Carlos Chávez to Federico Ibarra’s Second Symphony “Las antesalas del sueño”, and from ancient Mayan art to contemporary Mexican cinema.

Orion Weiss—“an effortlessly brilliant performer with technique to burn” (The Arizona Republic)—returns for an intimate afternoon of musical gems. Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss joins NWS Fellows for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s First Piano Quartet, a stormy drama with concerto-like virtuosity, and Lili Boulanger’s Of a Sad Evening, a work hidden for over 60 years by the composer’s sister and fellow composer, Nadia. Miami-based composer Dorothy Hindman asks “can we erase the past?” in her Untitled I, while Witold Lutosławski called his Dance Preludes his “farewell to folklore.” Joining in the performance are musicians from The Cleveland Orchestra.