Common Meets A Miami Orchestra For One Night At The Arsht
Originally published by AllHipHop Read the original
Common will bring his catalog into a different setting in Miami on Thursday, November 12, joining Nu Deco Ensemble for a one-night performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall.
The program puts a live orchestra behind music drawn from more than three decades of Hip-Hop, film and theater work.
Nu Deco co-founder and artistic director Sam Hyken will conduct the ensemble, which is known for building new arrangements around contemporary artists instead of treating orchestral backing as decoration.
Hyken has made clear that the collaboration comes from a long relationship with Common’s work. “Like Water for Chocolate, Be, and Electric Circus are three of my all-time favorite hip-hop albums,” he told Miami New Times when the dates were announced.
The Miami concert is expected to include “Love of My Life” and “Glory,” the Oscar-winning song Common recorded with John Legend for Selma. It will also draw from a career that recently added The Auditorium: Vol. 1, his 2024 full-length collaboration with Pete Rock.
That album earned Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Performance.
Nu Deco was founded in Miami in 2015 and built its identity around collaborations that move across classical music, Hip-Hop, soul, jazz and pop. Its previous guests include Wyclef Jean, Macy Gray, Stephen Marley, Bilal, Masego and Emily King.
The organization says its concerts and recordings have reached more than 100,000 audience members and 15 million streams.
Its education work has served more than 174,000 students, while Nu Deco Access has distributed thousands of free tickets in Miami-Dade County.
That local history gives the Arsht date more weight than a standard tour stop. Common is not arriving with a traveling backing band or a fixed festival set.
The performance centers on Nu Deco’s sound and how its musicians reinterpret a guest’s existing material.
The Knight Concert Hall show begins at 8 p.m. and is scheduled to run about 90 to 100 minutes. Common and Nu Deco will take the same collaboration to Orlando’s Walt Disney Theater the following night, but Miami gets the first performance and the orchestra’s home stage.
