On its way to Boca Raton, Nu Deco Ensemble salutes Nina Simone

Both at home and, especially, on tour, Miami-based Nu Deco Ensemble is unbound by conventional expectations for what music and culture from South Florida is supposed to sound like.

Founded nearly five years ago by Jacomo Bairos and Sam Hyken, the “chamber orchestra designed for the 21st century” has gleefully smudged traditional lines between genre and audiences, between the popular music on your turntable and the classical music you hold at arm’s length.

Trumpter and composer Hyken, with degrees from Julliard and the University of Miami, has cast a wide net in seeking out influences. Nu Deco Ensemble’s first season in 2015 included Hyken’s “Daft Punk Suite,” and this season opened with a symphonic program of music by Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis and soul singer Curtis Mayfield, with young organ virtuoso Cory Henry as guest artist.

This weekend Nu Deco Ensemble is performing in the space where it may feel most at home, the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood. The program features works by female composers, Hyken’s suite of original music inspired by Nina Simone and a performance by Colombian-Canadian singer and songwriter Tei Shi.

Bairos says that, as he travels as a guest conductor and monitors social media, he has seen a growing appreciation for NDE, both for its musicianship and its cultural relevance. The last year, in particular, has seen “a real uptick” in performers interested in collaborating with the orchestra, which last month appeared with Grammy-winning vocalist Angélique Kidjo at the North Beach Bandshell.

“We really want to be speaking to people today and now, not some perceived alternate future and not the past,” he says. “We do support music that’s by composers that are no longer with us, of course, but the reality is we want to speak to society today and present music and art that is current and relevant.”

Bairos says both constituencies will be addressed during this weekend’s evenings of “female empowerment,” highlighted by Hyken’s “Nina Simone Suite,” which salutes the late jazz vocalist and civil-rights icon’s classical piano work.

“She has a very big classical background. She had a deep affinity and love for J.S. Bach, the baroque composer,” Bairos says. “We’re highlighting some of her protest songs, but it’s really built off of her famous piano and instrumental motifs.”

Its beauty and any connection to the contemporary political zeitgeist is in the eye of the beholder, Bairos says.

“We didn’t come into the concert saying we wanted to make a political statement. We want to be relevant. We want to spur the imagination. We want to compel people. We want to move people. We want them to think. But we don’t have to be overtly political about it,” he says. “That’s the beautiful thing about art. People can take what they want from it.”

There is no doubt that South Florida audiences are responding: The three Nu Deco Ensemble performances at the Light Box Thursday-Saturday are sold out. But there are six more concerts left in the season, including three in the next several weeks, the ensemble’s first performance in Palm Beach County among them.

On Feb. 24 from noon to 5 p.m., the orchestra will play music to nosh by in the Grand Tasting Village at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. On March 6-8, the ensemble will be joined by Cuban singer-songwriter Yusa in its return to the Global Cuba Fest at the Light Box.

On March 9, Nu Deco Ensemble makes its Palm Beach County debut at the Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton during Festival of the Arts Boca. For tickets, visit FestivalBoca.org.

Bairos says that while the orchestra enjoys going as avant-garde as possible for Light Box audiences, the musicians also look forward to offering new audiences an evening of greatest hits.

“At Boca and SoBe, these are probably audiences that have never seen us before, so we want to give them the stuff that people really connect to, really love. Almost like the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, in a way,” he says, with a laugh. “They would play the songs that people know and love. That’s what we want to do, so people really get the best version of who we are and really get to see us in our most authentic light.”

For more information on upcoming performances by Nu Deco Ensemble, visit Nu-Deco.org.

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