The Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra was established in 2004 with Pierre Boulez as its guiding force, but the conductor David Robertson presided for a pulsating, high-precision account of Steve Reich's 45-minute "Desert Music," an invigorating exercise in Minimalist style in which the Academy Orchestra was joined by Synergy Vocals, a 10-singer ensemble.
The second, a nun's vision of her union with Jesus, is a magnificently sensual scena for solo female singer and ensemble called Hadewijch.
Singer and ensemble frantically mirrored the final section of the poem: His house is floating, gasping, exploding under the ocean of his children who flee on insane ladders into the dark university.
By Alex Ross Lisa Bielawa's "Chance Encounter," a captivating half-hour piece for singer and ensemble, is made to be heard in a public place, with the musicians arriving at different times and moving about as they perform.
But my best friend Patti's parents were overly generous so Patti had the dream house, the car and the oh-so-fabulous nightclub singer evening ensemble complete with microphone!
Mr. Rosenbaum is best known for his work as the founding director of the New York Virtuoso Singers, an ensemble that specializes in contemporary music (celebrating its 25th anniversary this season) and also Canticum Novum Singers, devoted to early music.
Performers were backed by as many as 30 supporting musicians and singers, the ensemble urged on from the wings by the inexhaustible producer.
In sheer size, the forces arrayed onstage were impressive: the Roma Sinfonietta of about 100 was augmented by the Canticum Novum Singers, an ensemble of roughly the same size.
Also on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church on South Country Road in Bay Shore, the New Century Singers, an ensemble of members and friends of the lesbian and gay community on the Island, perform their "Fifth Annual Pride Concert".
In his "Pulse Shadows" on Teldec, singer-and-ensemble and string quartet pursue parallel tracks of lyrical, luminous, sharp meditation on the poetry of Paul Celan.
The 4x4 Baroque Music Festival brings together some of the best period-instrument players and early-music singers from ensembles around the country for four free concerts to mark the end of summer.
