You need to add multi-measure-rest-interface to the keepAliveInterfaces for
that staff.
Here are the two bits of syntactic sugar I use:
showMMRs = {
\set Staff.keepAliveInterfaces =
#'( rhythmic-grob-interface
multi-measure-rest-interface
lyric-interface
stanza-number-interface
percent-repeat-interface) }
hideMMRs = \unset Staff.keepAliveInterfaces
So put a \showMMRs in your music expression at the point where you want to
force that Staff context to appear (despite having \RemoveEmptyStaves active),
and put a \hideMMRs when you want it to return to “default” (i.e., the Staff
will disappear, if possible).
Hope this helps!
Kieren.
_______________________
Kieren MacMillan, composer
www: <http://www.kierenmacmillan.info>
email: address@hidden