South Florida Classical Review

Jacomo Bairos

Often at concerts where classical and popular forms meet, they coexist uneasily, in an atmosphere of stiffness, condescension and forced fun.

But the Miami-based Nu Deco Ensemble has made a specialty of concerts for listeners who value both the immense heritage of classical music as well as the immediacy and energy of music being composed today. The chamber orchestra will put on another such program Friday and Saturday at New World Center in Miami Beach, in a performance that will range from Shostakovich to Depeche Mode.

The concert will feature the world premiere of indie-pop singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi’s Improvisations on EO 9066, a work inspired by the composer’s visits to internment sites where Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during World War II (Executive Order 9066 was the order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt authorizing the internments.)

The evening will also include an arrangement of the Allegro from Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, a movement of baleful violence that depicts the recently deceased Stalin. Also on tap will be Mothership, a techno-sounding  work written for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra by Mason Bates, among the nation’s best-known young classical composers.

Sam Hyken, the Juilliard-educated trumpet player and composer who is Nu Deco’s co-founder, will contribute his own symphonic suite from the music of the British rock band Depeche Mode. Conducting will be Jacomo Bairos, another Nu Deco founder.

Concerts will be 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at New World Center in Miami Beach. nu-deco.org; 305-702-0116

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