Katherine Balch

(Note: Thread, unfurled is the first movement of a two-movement work called Music About Glowworms. These movements can be performed separately, or together as a single work. Purchase movement two, drip / spin, here.)

In some caves on the other side of the world, there are glowworms that spin a silky, luminescent thread. Chains of bug-made starlight hang from invisible ceilings and lure other tiny cave dwellers into their viscous dew. I imagine very still columns of light in the dark with occasional ripples from trapped victims — not a violent disruption but more peaceful, like pebbles in water. In Thread, unfurled the flute and piano whisper and drip and sigh downward together with brittle fragility. This piece is written for and dedicated to Zach Sheets and Wei-Han Wu, and was commissioned with generous support from the Tallon Perkes Scholarship Fund and New Music USA.

– Katherine Balch