Live at Knight Common With Nu Deco Ensemble

Common, an Academy Award-, Emmy- and Grammy-winning artist, actor, author and activist, continues to break down barriers with a multitude of critically acclaimed roles and success in all aspects of his career. In 2024, Common released an album with Pete Rock, The Auditorium, Vol. 1, via Loma Vista Recordings. This marked Common and Pete Rock’s first full-length collaboration. The album received two Grammy nominations for “Best Rap Album” and “Best Rap Performance.” In July, Common will appear in Season 3 of Apple TV’s hit sci-fi drama series Silo. Also in 2024, Common released his health and wellness book, And Then We Rise, which encourages people to take care of themselves through mind, body and soul. In 2022, he made his Broadway debut playing Junior in Between Riverside and Crazy. His album A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2 was released in September 2021 and served as an inspiring follow-up to A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 1, which was released in March 2020. In 2019, Common released his hit album Let Love, inspired by his experience writing his New York Times best-selling second memoir, Let Love Have the Last Word. In 2020, Common partnered with Audible to release his podcast Mind Power Mixtape as well as the Audible original Bluebird Memories: A Journey Through Lyrics and Life. He has dedicated countless hours and has been deeply engaged in social justice and advocacy work around mass incarceration, mental health and voting. Common’s foundation Free to Dream encompasses his 20 years of leadership as a changemaker, using his entertainment platform to advance the world’s most critical social causes, with a focus on education, justice, wellness and jobs.

Sam Hyken has had a rich, globe-spanning musical career. Based in Miami, he is in demand as a performer, producer, arranger and composer. Along with Jacomo Bairos, Hyken is co-founder and artistic director of genre-bending Miami orchestra Nu Deco Ensemble. He also serves as CEO of the organization.
 
As a musical arranger and director, Hyken has adapted and written music for Bad Bunny, Train, Wyclef Jean, Pitbull, Robert Glasper, PJ Morton, Cynthia Erivo, Macy Gray, Ben Folds and many others. Hyken's music has been commissioned by symphony orchestras and organizations such as New World Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony and Miami Symphony Orchestra. His work has also been performed by the Boston Pops, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolivar of Venezuela. From 2011 to 2015, Hyken was composer in residence with Miami Symphony Orchestra.

Hyken was associate principal trumpet of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2006. From 2006 to 2009, he was a member of New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. Hyken was a member of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra and the UBS Verbier Chamber Orchestra for five years, touring and performing with esteemed conductors such as James Levine, Loren Maazel, Valerie Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Yuri Temirakanov, Christoph Donyani and Charles Dutoit. 
 
Hyken holds a bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School in New York, a post-graduate diploma with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London and a master's degree in media writing and production from the University of Miami. In 2016, Hyken was awarded the title of Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.