Sam Hyken

Sam Hyken is a Miami-based composer, arranger, producer, trumpeter, and artistic leader whose work bridges orchestral music, popular culture, and contemporary performance. He is Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director, and CEO of Nu Deco Ensemble, Miami’s genre-defying orchestra, which he founded with conductor Jacomo Bairos to reimagine what an orchestra can be in the 21st century.
As an arranger, producer, and music director, Hyken has written for and collaborated with a wide range of artists across genres, including Bad Bunny, Jon Batiste, Jacob Collier, Cynthia Erivo, Luis Fonsi, Wyclef Jean, Pitbull, Robert Glasper, Macy Gray, Angélique Kidjo, Tank and the Bangas, PJ Morton, Cory Wong, Ben Folds, Masego, Kimbra, Larkin Poe, Lawrence, Lupe Fiasco, Ledisi, Black Violin, Time for Three, Cimafunk, Madison Cunningham, and many others. Through Nu Deco Ensemble, his work has helped create a new orchestral language rooted in collaboration, cultural relevance, and musical excellence.
Hyken’s original compositions have been commissioned by the New World Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Adrienne Arsht Center, Kansas City Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Charlotte Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Miami Symphony Orchestra, and Metropole Orkest. His music has also been performed by many of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Boston Pops and the San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Oregon, San Diego, Detroit, Toronto, Jacksonville, Charleston, Milwaukee, Amarillo, and Phoenix symphonies, as well as the Florida Orchestra and Venezuela’s Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar.
Before his work as a composer and artistic entrepreneur, Hyken built an international career as a trumpeter. He served as Associate Principal Trumpet of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2006 and was a member of the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas from 2006 to 2009. He also toured for five years with the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, performing under conductors including James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Yuri Temirkanov, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Charles Dutoit.
Hyken holds a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, a postgraduate 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, he was named an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.