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Ensemble Connect Performs Katherine Balch's Musica Spolia and Musica Nuvola at Carnegie Hall

Feb. 27, 2025

Ensemble Connect performed a new arrangement of Katherine Balch's Musica Spolia for mixed sextet and premiered Musica Nuvola, also for mixed sextet, at Skidmore College on February 7 and at Carnegie Hall on February 10.

Katheirne Balch notes:

"Musica Spolia seeks to capture the mischief, playfulness, and microcosmic world-building of childhood. I wrote this piece when living in Rome, Italy and found my own meanderings around the city as reminiscent of my dawn-til-dusk explorations of the desert canyon outside my house growing up in San Diego, California. The city of Rome is a pastel rendering of the brown and sage-green scraggly desert flora of my childhood. It is overgrown with spolia, like the campanula and ivy that spill out of the walls, statues and ornate treasures decorate the ancient monuments haphazardly, sometimes frantically. These found, recycled, or stolen materials and their misplaced, agitated energy find their way into this short piece, which I composed like my childhood hunter-gather self, collecting scraps and mementos from miniature adventures. This piece was co-commissioned by L’Instant Donné and Young Concert Artists, Inc., and exists as both a trio for flute, viola, and piano, and a quartet for flute, violin, piano, and percussion. It is dedicated with affection to Saori Furukawa and Anthony Trionfo."

Musica Nuvola was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Ensemble Sextet.

Listen to Katherine Balch's different gravities (2019):

Katherine Balch/different gravities/Longleash

Katherine Balch
Musica Spolia (2021-2024)
Percussion: marimba, 3 crotales (Ab, B, C#), 5 desk bells (D5, Bb4, Ab4, G4, F4), 1 small or medium coarse ceramic tile, 1 ribbed metal can or, alternatively, 1 large ribbed plastic water bottle (whichever blends best), 2 graduated flower pots (4", 5" for example), 2 graduated resonant glass bottles, a small container of packing peanuts or, alternatively, tissue paper a sheet of bubble wrap, 1 egg shaker, 1 piccolo woodblock, 1 guiro
6'

Also available for flute violin and piano (2021) and flute, violin, percussion, and piano (2021).

Musica Nuvola (2024)
for mixed sextet
Percussion: marimba, 2 crotales (B, C#), 4 desk bells (E5, D5, Bb4, G4), 2 triangles (small, med.), 1 small or medium coarse ceramic tile, 1 ribbed metal can or, alternatively, 1 large ribbed plastic water bottle (whichever blends best), 2 graduated flower pots (4", 5" for example), 2 graduated resonant glass bottles, a small container of packing peanuts or, alternatively, tissue paper a sheet of bubble wrap, 1 egg shaker, 1 piccolo woodblock, 1 guiro
5'

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