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Haitian singer Arly Larivi\u00e8re of Nu-Look is bringing konpa music to the Kaseya Center in Miami with a full orchestra on Friday, September 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ricardo Saint-Cyr<\/p>\n
Courtesy of<\/p>\n
The Haitian crooner and bandleader Arly Larivi\u00e8re knows a few things about getting people onto a dance floor. For more than three decades, his romantic ballads and hits have provided the soundtrack for couples swaying cheek-to-cheek to the sensual gouyad of konpa rhythms.<\/p>\n
Until now, however, those performances have largely occurred in intimate settings where the music has mostly thrived: smaller nightclubs and ballrooms.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Larivi\u00e8re, who fans call \u201cmaestro\u201d and is the lead singer and songwriter of popular South Florida based band Nu-Look, is taking the sound somewhere it\u2019s never been \u2013 and onto one of its biggest indoor stages yet.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s bringing his live orchestral show, \u201cKonpa En Symphony,<\/a>\u201d to the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, the final U.S. stop in an ambitious concert series that pairs his familiar repertoire from more than a half dozen albums with guitars, violins, cellos and a full orchestra.<\/p>\n The arena, home to the Miami Heat, is accustomed to international stars like Bad Bunny and Andrea Bocelli. But never has it played host to konpa, the homegrown dance music that blends slowed-down merengue rhythms, Haitian percussion and distinctive bras and guitar arrangements.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, what we are doing is putting the country on the map, placing the country\u2019s music on the map,\u201d Larivi\u00e8re said. \u201cIt\u2019s about a culture, a music that\u2019s benefitting.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, it\u2019s about elevating Haitian music while also offering fans a moment of respite during what he and others recognize as a difficult period for the community<\/a> both in the United States and back home.<\/p>\n \u201cEven when people think we\u2019ve been defeated, there is always one last thing we do to show we are not,\u201d Larivi\u00e8re told the Miami Herald, shortly after receiving encouraging news from the Miami venue about ticket sales.<\/p>\n Significant moment for konpa<\/p>\n Larivi\u00e8re\u2019s tour has unfolded at a particularly significant moment for konpa, which was created in 1955 by Haitian saxophonist and bandleader Nemours Jean-Baptiste and marked its 70th birthday last year. Decades later, the syncopated rhythm remains one of Haiti\u2019s most enduring cultural exports.<\/p>\n In March of last year, a reunited Carimi,<\/a> one of the genre\u2019s most popular boy bands, performed at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise in a sign of konpa\u2019s growing reach beyond clubs and ballrooms where it built its following.<\/p>\n Then in December, UNESCO recognized the music<\/a> as an important expression of Haitian identity and cultural influence, adding \u201cThe Compas of Haiti\u201d \u2014 using its French spelling \u2014 to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.<\/p>\n In its application for the honor, the team lead by Haiti\u2019s then UNESCO ambassador, Dominique Dupuy, described the music as transcending \u201csocial classes, forging a unique characteristic with Haitian identity.\u201d UNESCO, in turn praised it as music that \u201cbrings together people of all ages, genders and backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n Larivi\u00e8re\u2019s late father, Daniel, was an early pioneer of the music. Alongside Pierre F\u00e9qui\u00e8re Joseph, known as \u201cGiordani Joseph,\u201d they made the band Orchestre Tropicana one of Haiti\u2019s most distinctive sounds. They still perform today.<\/p>\n With such a pedigree , Larivi\u00e8re, born in Cap-Ha\u00eftien, has always been in tune with what konpa fans want, which helped birth the idea of slowing down its tanbou, congas, trumpets and distinctive electric guitar lines and casting the beats against a full orchestra.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that was always there, that I used to flirt with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Larivi\u00e8re recalled a 2015 performance with the Haitian band Klass in New York, when dressed in a pastel-colored jacket, he sang \u201cWhy Do You Say You Love Me,\u201d accompanied by a conductor guiding the string orchestra.<\/p>\n Then in 2023, he returned to the stage, this time performing with a philharmonic orchestra in Boston.<\/p>\n Miami is the fifth U.S. stop, and with that comes the concert series\u2019 largest venue and largest community of Haitians. Launched first in Boston in November, the series has been showcased in New York, Orlando and most recently Quebec, Canada where Larivi\u00e8re performed on Sunday. All the cities have large communities of Haitians.<\/p>\n In Quebec, the artist was joined on stage with about 40 musicians. In Miami, he\u2019s expects that number to nearly double.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be like 70-something people on stage,\u201d Larivi\u00e8re said.<\/p>\n Haiti is in the plans but not easy<\/p>\n Larivi\u00e8re plans to take the series to Paris in December and hopes to eventually bring it to Haiti, where the country\u2019s ongoing instability continues to pose a challenge for musicians who have long relied on the country as both a market for their music, and a source of inspiration.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time we go to Haiti, it\u2019s love that take us here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sentiment that take us there because the conditions are truly difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n Larivi\u00e8re notes that even traveling across the country has become complicated. \u201cJust to go from the north of Haiti to the south, you have to go by plane,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no way for you to take the road.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there is the economics. Musicians are trying to operate in country where audiences earn in Haitian gourdes but staging a performance is done in U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cHaitian musicians face a lot of challenges at this moment because we really do have love for what we are doing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe love our country, we love our culture, and we\u2019re always thinking we have a message, we have a job to connect people\u201d through the music.<\/p>\n \u2018Gouyad era\u2019 and konpa\u2019s generational shift<\/p>\n For an artist who has spent much of his career performing in familiar places, Kaseya Center represents an opportunity for Larivi\u00e8re to show what not only what else Haitian musicians can do, but also that konpa can occupy the same stage as other musical genres.<\/p>\n This is not lost on fans or those in the business of promoting Haitian music.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a historical moment for us here in South Florida and all over,\u201d said Terry Louis, co-producer of Sounds of Little Haiti,<\/a> the musical series that brings konpa artists to the Little Haiti Cultural Complex each month. \u201cWe\u2019re just proud of how far we\u2019ve come along with konpa, and how now we\u2019re able to do bigger and better venues.\u201d<\/p>\n Louis, who is bringing Haitian songstress Emeline Michel to Little Haiti on Oct. 16 as part of his monthly third Friday music series, said konpa is undergoing a generational transformation.<\/p>\n A younger crop of artists, many of them Haitian Americans, are touring with the music, and experimenting with its sound. Some have dubbed the current moment as the \u201cgouyad era,\u201d a reference to the sensual dance that has become increasingly popular in the music\u2019s younger incarnation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe younger Haitian Americans are embracing konpa more than ever,\u201d Louis said. \u201cThey are taking this to a different level.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A beautiful moment for the culture\u2019<\/p>\n It is this evolution that Larivi\u00e8re hopes to tap into with his \u201cKonpa En Symphony,\u201d which he hopes brings out not just the traditional band-circuit fans who have routinely crowded dance floors, but their parents, children and even people who may be unfamiliar with the sound.<\/p>\n For Cassandre Dorcely, a longtime fan of the artist, the concert is already more than just about the music.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up in the U.S. listening to Haitian music, but I truly fell in love with it when I first heard Arly singing, \u2018Why Do You Say You Love me,\u201d said Dorcely, a certified registered nurse anesthetist. \u201cI have all of his albums and have been to countless bals, dancing to the emotional ballads and Nu-Look hits.\u201d<\/p>\n With her floor seats purchased and gown chosen \u2014 Larivi\u00e8re notes fans are planning to glam up for the evening \u2014 Dorcely says she is looking forward to Friday\u2019s performance, which the singer hints will also feature a few surprises.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing a Haitian jazz artist perform in a major arena fills me with so much pride,\u201d Dorcely, who lives in Davie, said. \u201cWhat a beautiful moment for our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n If You Go:<\/p>\n When: Friday, Sept. 25<\/p>\n Time: 8 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n Where: Kaseya Center, 601 Biscayne Blvd.<\/p>\n Cost: $84 to $536 for floor seats; Tickets available at Ticketmaster<\/a><\/p>\n Haitian singer Arly Larivi\u00e8re of Nu-Look is bringing konpa music to the Kaseya Center Center in Miami with a full orchestra on Friday, September 25, 2026. Ricardo Saint-Cyr Courtesy of <\/p>\n