Numinous is a flexible and unique ensemble of up to 50 musicians that was founded in 2000 by composer Joseph C. Phillips Jr. to perform his music. In addition to Numinous, the musicians in Numinous have also performed with: LA Opera, Joyce Didonato, Metropolitan Opera, Bang on A Can All-Stars, St. Vincent, Signal, Alarm will Sound, Björk, Sting, Stevie Wonder, International Contemporary Ensemble, Rufus Wainwright, Steve Reich​, The Knights, Laurie Anderson, Hans Zimmer, John Zorn, Victoire, Asphalt Orchestra, Philip Glass, New Jersey Symphony, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Houston Symphony, Maria Schneider Orchestra, Henry Threadgill, and many other contemporary ensembles and artists.

Part chamber orchestra, part contemporary alternative group, Numinous deftly and organically transmutes inspiration from contemporary classical, jazz, world, and popular music as well as cinema, literature, and science. Through its numerous performances—such as at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)'s Next Wave Festival, the Ecstatic Music Festival and Merkin Concert Hall, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Roulette—and critically well-received recordings The Music of Joseph C. Phillips Jr. (2003, Numen Records), Vipassana (2009, innova Recordings), Changing Same (2015, New Amsterdam Records), and The Grey Land (2020, New Amsterdam Records) Numinous reflects Phillips’s musical philosophy of mixed music; the term is inspired by mixed race people who have traits and characteristics that come from each individual parent, from the melding of the two, and their own uniqueness. Mixed music is an organic fusing of various artistic and cultural influences into one distinctive and singular vision. Numinous and Phillips’s music generate emotions in the listener that resonate with beauty, mystery, and wonder in order to challenge, enlighten, and refresh.