Ghost Ensemble is dedicated to new experimental music that explores the act of listening, expands perceptual horizons, and encourages a common immersive experience, demonstrating its potential for individual and community transformation. Collaboration with living composers is the ensemble's primary focus. Rethinking the norms of composer/performer interaction, Ghost Ensemble begins by meeting and improvising with each composer, developing new works over time through exploratory workshop sessions. Through this process, we nurture truly innovative music that would not be possible otherwise. Since 2012, Ghost has premiered 29 such works by a diverse range of composers.
The works and Deep Listening practice of Pauline Oliveros are also central to the ensemble's identity. The ensemble's direct collaborations with Oliveros included the 2013 New York release event for her Anthology of Text Scores; since the composer's passing in 2016, Ghost has aimed to perform and record many of her less well known works. Ghost Ensemble's approach is well expressed by Oliveros's Imaginary Meditations: "Can you imagine listening beyond the edge of your imagination?"
In 2018, Ghost Ensemble released debut LP We Who Walk Again, featuring works by Sky Macklay, Pauline Oliveros, and Ben Richter. Critics hail Ghost’s music as “prodigious … a thrilling listen”, “wonderful work … both exhilarating and a bit scary”, “beautifully performed … a body-felt sound mass … evoking the primeval“, and “cloudy, mysterious, and dark … Beckettian in its slow spread … certainly a group to keep an eye on”.
