Not, though, in the opener, Minutes by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, a concise piece for a handful of strings in which barely-heard tones gradually took on stronger timbre and definition, the pulse strengthening, as if the music were a bird finding the rhythm it needed to take flight and disappear.
So do the shapely solo vocal lines, sung here by Claudia Barainsky, a soprano with a strong, clear timbre, and Marco Lazzara, a male alto with a dark, rich tone.
His voice is elastic and strong, a many-timbre instrument, and he uses them all, from a clear tenor to an anguished, grungy roar.
And "Sky Blue," newly commissioned by Hunter College, had a strong, hopeful quality, ending with Tony Scherr's droning bowed bass underneath the most delicate timbres Ms. Schneider could get out of her orchestra.
Mr. Brownlee's agile, expressive voice has a sweet timbre and strong, lustrous top notes, which he will demonstrate on Sunday with the aria "Ah, mes amis" from Donizetti's "Fille du Régiment".
The Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska (a first-prize winner in 2006 in the Operalia Competition, which Plácido Domingo founded for young singers) was an affecting Mimi, singing with a fluid, dark-hued voice, earthy timbre and strong top notes.
"The distinctive sound of 'Lose Yourself' … is a combination of the other instruments, particularly the guitar riff, the timbre, the strong hypnotic rhythm and the recurring violin instrumentation and the piano figure.
Patina Miller, recreating her starring performance from the West End production, has a radiant presence and a strong voice with a tangy timbre.
Daye, whose voice has a sultry timbre, came on strong in all the various styles but her Diahann Carroll tunes showed what she can do.
Speaking of the music of Chen Qigang, I said that its refined, free-floating timbres suggested a strong affinity between modern Chinese composition and the sound-world of Debussy and Messiaen.
"Her timbre was clear and strong, her intonation pitch-perfect," Stephen Holden wrote in a review in The New York Times.
