Quick Quotes
What critics and colleagues are saying about the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble
"What he (Artistic Director Kevin Noe) created on stage last night at City Theatre for its season-opening concert was still far more slick and compelling a format than you will see in symphony concerts for years. Interactive lighting, seamless movement from piece to piece, surround-sound audio and video projections and humor. And if the concert lacked theatrics, that only put the focus on the virtuosity of the players."
- Andy Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Over its last few seasons, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble has come tantalizingly close to truly achieving a complex, new style of theatrically-minded performance. Friday night at City Theatre on the South Side, it was Tantalus himself who put the group over the hump in the premiere of Just Out of Reach, a smart and moving original production co-written by Kevin Noe and Kieren MacMillan."
- Andy Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"[PNME’s] Just Out of Reach is brilliant post-modern entertainment”"
- Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Its season-opening 'concert' Friday night at City Theatre showed again PNME's multi-disciplinary performances make for some of the most pleasing the city gets each year....Every arts manager in the city should be taking notes."
- Andy Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Friday night's season opener at City Theatre on the South Side was a scintillating experience that combined excellent contemporary music and smart theatricality.... I haven't had more fun at any concert this season."
- Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
“The lime-green light has never burned so bright.”
- Andy Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“For sheer variety, PNME’s weekend concerts could not be beaten. Five diverse styles were presented with stunning versatility at City Theatre on the South Side.”
- Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
“PNME’s success and popularity seem to be growing faster than the group can keep up.“
- Eric Haines, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“I am hearing from composers in the field how well [PNME] plays and that they enjoy working with them. It is great news for Pittsburgh and great news for the national community.“
- Heather Hitchens, Meet The Composer
“It's great to work with a conductor who is so committed to presenting new works in a way that I have honestly never seen.”
- Kevin Puts, composer
“PNME's opening night was a complete triumph that demonstrated artistic director Kevin Noe's 'theater of music' brings new vitality to the presentation of contemporary music.”
- Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
“What's not to like about this group, whose approach is always as fresh as its trademark color of lime green?”
- Jane Vranish, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette