Miami’s Nu Deco Ensemble will take to the North Beach Bandshell on Saturday, January 30th for a livestream performance featuring celebrated guitarist/bandleader/hype-man Cory Wong. As is customary with the innovative “hybrid orchestra,” the performance will draw from a variety of creative wells—in addition to compositions by George Gershwin and Chris Rogerson, the livestream will include a new symphonic rendering of the music of The Beach Boys. Pay-per-view tickets are available here.

The artistically nimble Nu Deco Ensemble, a 30-piece outfit featuring both a conventional orchestra and the bones of an electric jazz-funk band, has exploded onto Miami’s eclectic music scene over the past five years. Founded and spearheaded by co-artistic directors Sam Hyken and Jacomo Bairos, Nu Deco Ensemble makes its home on the largely unexplored middle ground between classical composition and seemingly incongruous contemporary genres and artists—from Daft Punk to Bill Withers to OutKast. In doing so, the ensemble both brings casual music fans into the world of orchestra and elevates jazz, funk, hip-hop, and other modern styles to the prestige of high art.

With its high-profile collaborators, Nu Deco Ensemble reaches ever further across the unique stylistic divide in which it thrives. On Saturday, January 30th, Cory Wong will join a distinguished list of veteran Nu Deco collaborators ranging from Robert Glasper to PJ Morton, Wyclef Jean to Larkin Poe, Jacob Collier to Ben Folds.

Wong plans to mark the occasion with some special surprises, as he’ll bring along his own rhythm section for a batch of new arrangements—and even a couple of new songs. “This is going to be extra special,” he notes in a press statement.

Perhaps no other artist was as prolific during 2020 as Cory Wong. Though he typically spends his days touring the world with his solo band or playing venues like Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks Amphitheatre with Vulfpeck, Wong used his pandemic-imposed time off the road as a creative breeding ground. Included among Wong’s numerous 2020 releases were solo studio albums, live records, twin concept pieces, and a collaborative EP with Jon Batiste, Meditations, which netted him a Grammy nomination for “Best New Age Album.” In his spare time, he managed to record and produce the debut LP by Vulfpeck offshoot, The Fearless Flyers, and start a successful podcast, Wong Notes, which has now morphed into a variety show/forthcoming album, Cory and the Wongnotes.

Nu Deco’s Sam Hyken is thrilled to link up with the modern Renaissance man, “Cory Wong is firing on all cylinders, having produced a variety of fantastic projects in the past year alone,” he said. “We are thrilled to collaborate with him, and I feel Nu Deco Ensemble is an ideal vehicle for his music.”

Tickets to the Nu Deco Ensemble livestream on featuring Cory Wong at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 30th are available here. Ticket-holders will be able to access the performance on demand for 72 hours after the live broadcast.

 

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Following the Saturday, January 30th performance featuring Cory Wong, Nu Deco Ensemble will continue its livestream series from the North Beach Bandshell with performances on April 10th featuring Richard Bona and May 15th featuring Cory Henry.

“We feel tremendously honored to provide and share musical experiences that will bring Miami and our world community together,” Bairos said of the series.

“During these extraordinarily challenging times, music and the arts serve the critical purpose of connection to one another,” added Hyken.”These performances which highlight a cutting edge digital platform will bring our audiences closer to the music and our artists than ever before.”

For more information and ticketing details for all upcoming Nu Deco Ensemble livestreams, head here.