Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Kevin Noe directs the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble during a practice at the City Theatre on the South Side. Click photo for larger image. Related article: Woodpeckers, whales open series Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble 2005 Summer Season Where: City Theatre, South Side. Tickets: $20 ($5 students, $10 seniors, free for first-time audience members); 412-889-7231 or www.pnme.org. Program 1 When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Works by: John Cage, George Crumb, Lee Hyla, Kamran Ince and Ayaka Nishina. Program 2 When: 8 p.m. July 15-16. Works by: Randy Woolf, Roger Dannenberg, Chinary Ung, Dan Welcher and Lansing McLoskey. Program 3 When: 8 p.m. July 22-23. Works by: Mathew Rosenblum, Jeffrey Nytch, Javier Alvarez, David Froom, Ross Bauer. Program 4 When: July 29-30. Works by: David Stock, Kevin Puts, Shih Hui Chen, Russell Pinkston, Ryan Francis. Program 5 When: Aug. 5-6. Works by: Kieren MacMillan, David Cutler, Ince, Arthur Kreiger. earSHOT Films When: 7 p.m. at City Theatre: "Decasia" (July 12), "A Time There Was ... (A Profile of Benjamin Britten)" (July 19), "Truly, Madly, Deeply" (July 26), and "The Fog of War" (Aug. 2).

The "lime"-light has never burned as bright.

For its 2005 summer season, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble -- its members clad in black and lime green -- is doubling the number of concerts it will play. The concerts at the City Theatre on the South Side will now occur Friday and Saturday nights, the latest sign that the group is continuing to grow.

"It was the next logical step for us. We are very excited about it," says managing director Jeffrey Nytch.

The 29-year-old group was in trouble when composer and founder David Stock retired in 1999. But a risky move to a summer-only season, first at the Hazlett Theater and now at the City Theatre, is paying off. As audiences have grown each season, PNME sought to address the primary complaint: that there was only one chance each week to hear each program.

"We needed to give the audience the option of coming different nights."

Artistic director and conductor Kevin Noe says the increase will be a boon to the performers, too. Because the group plays few pieces that had been heard before, it puts in a tremendous amount of rehearsals on often "fiendishly difficult music" with only one shot to get it right in performance.

"The team really wanted to play two concerts. We always feel at the end of the first concert that we finally were ready," he said.

Noe also looks forward to the stability of this season to really hone the group.

"I think this summer will be our zenith. All of our efforts this year are about trimming down some of the extra events we did that made us frazzled. We are not changing halls. We are the best scheduled we have ever been, and I am the best prepared."

There have been some changes. Every year, the group replaces one or two musicians from its seven-member roster. This year, the new members are violinist Marc Levine and pianist Danny Spiegel.

The national music scene has long known about Stock's PNME. But it is lately taking notice of the new version of the group.

"What I have been hearing and noticing is that it seems to have found new energy, which is hard to do," says Heather Hitchens of New York-based Meet the Composer. "I am hearing from composers in the field how well they play and that they enjoy working with them. It is great news for Pittsburgh and great news for the national community."

The most astonishing thing about PNME may not be that it is having success performing new music in a town somewhat resistant to it, but rather its ability to do so on an annual budget of only $154,000. That amount pays two full-time employees (Nytch and Noe) and personnel for the five-week season, namely assistants, a lighting director and the seven musicians.

"Dollar for dollar, PNME is the best deal in the city for funders," says Janet Sarbaugh of the Heinz Endowments.

Recently, the group has begun to fish for more funding, resulting in an Argosy Foundation grant from its Contemporary Music Fund. The $25,000 grant will go to commission five works, conduct a tour and complete two recordings over the next three years. Next season will be expanded by a week to accommodate the first album.

PNME is also becoming nationally known for the style of its concerts, where the music is presented with an eye for visuals and a sense of drama. Dancer and choreographer Rudolfo Villela has departed, but Nytch says the integrated, theatrical approach to the concerts will continue.

"Each concert is held together in its own way," he says, by a seamless mix of music, theater, video and poetry.

"People are definitely thinking about the concert experience in ways they have not been as attentive to in the past," says Hitchens. "There is some movement to make concert music more than just sitting down with bright lights shining down," including collaborations with dance and theater artists.

Noe says other groups are trying to copy PNME's style.

"But you have to have people willing to do it and practice it so it is not intrusive. If we don't play well, the theatrics look added. If we do, they draw focus to the music."

That music will include four premieres this summer: Nytch's "And the Wind Spoke," Shih Hui Chen's "Sweet Rice Pie" (the revised version), David Cutler's "Jabberwocky" and Kieren MacMillan's "Little Girl Lost." Also, this season features more Pittsburgh composers than any recent season, with compositions by Stock, Culter, Dannenberg, Rosenblum and Nytch, who relocated to Lawrenceville last year.

If PNME keeps growing at this rate and has another artistically successful season, the local focus on new music will be stronger -- and greener than ever.