Music

A featured star in the PBS documentary Pipe Dreams (2019), Alcee Chriss III is an organist and keyboardist from Fort Worth, TX. Dr. Chriss is the winner of the 2017 Canadian International Organ Competition and the Firmin Swinnen Silver Medal at the 2016 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition. He has been celebrated for his “grace, skill and abundant proficiency” by the Journal Assist News, Albuquerque. And of his most recent solo recording at Montreal Symphony Hall, Art et Rhapsodie (2019), the American Record Guide wrote that “he plays with clarity, imagination, musicality, virtuosity, and yes, personality.” Dr. Chriss has performed throughout North America and Europe. Recent and upcoming performances include the International Orgelsommer (Stuttgart, Germany), Stockholm City Hall (Sweden), and as soloist with the Montreal Symphony in a performance of Copland’s Symphony for Organ and Orchestra. Other engagements include the Princeton University Chapel, Spreckels Organ Pavilion and International Organ Summer Karlsruhe, Germany. In July 2022 he was a featured performer at the national convention of the American Guild of Organists, held in Seattle WA.

Grammy award-winning trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis is one of the top instrumentalists, composers and producers in jazz today. In January 2011, Delfeayo and the Marsalis family (father Ellis and brothers Branford, Wynton and Jason) earned the nation’s highest jazz honor, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award. For the opening night of the 2022 FIU Music Festival, he performs with the FIU Faculty Jazz Quintet and the students of the FIU Studio Jazz Big Band. This is one night you won't want to miss!

Nu Deco kicks off 2023 at the iconic Miami Beach Bandshell! This program will include the high-octane "Divertissement" by Jacques Ibert, as well as "Manhattan Nights" by renowned young composer, Kevin Day. We're thrilled to premiere an original work by musicians of the ensemble, as well as a reimagination of Stevie Wonder's sixteenth studio album Innervisions. This show will also feature a special collaboration with rising superstars, the New York soul-pop group Lawrence.

Members of Ensemble intercontemporain—the premier ensemble for contemporary music—and its Music Director Matthias Pintscher join Fellows for Olivier Messiaen’s epic 12-movement masterpiece From the canyons to the stars… Inspired by visits to Utah’s Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, nature enthusiast Messiaen captured the scenic wonders in a work that spans 90 minutes with solo features for piano, violin, horn and percussion. This performance will feature immersive multimedia projections by Hicham Berrada across the New World Center’s architectural sails, where the towering red rocks and fluttering birds will come to life.

With a commitment to cultivating a more curious and engaged society through music, the International Contemporary Ensemble amplifies creators whose work propels and challenges how music is made and experienced. Members of the ensemble join NWS Fellows in two world premieres by Sofía Rocha and Fernanda Navarro. Stately organ chorales by ultra-Romantic Johannes Brahms take on new splendor in these arrangements for brass. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet is one of his most popular works and features a demanding piano part that the composer premiered himself.

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.