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Led by Ustina Dubitsky, Ensemble intercontemporain and Hanzhi Wang Premiere Katherine Balch's husk

Apr. 24, 2025

Led by Ustina Dubitsky, Ensemble intercontemporain and accordion virtuoso Hanzhi Wang perform the world premiere of Katherine Balch's husk on May 3 at Wigmore Hall in London. Balch explains:

"husk is a micro-concerto written for Hanzhi Wang. At about 15 minutes in duration in two highly contrasting movements, it feels to me in some way an excerpt from a larger work that does not yet exist, though I hope it will be felt by listeners as a self-contained experience! In the first movement, the accordion acts as the heart (the grain) of an ensemble body (shell) that germinates yet is always contained with and nurtured by the skin of its ensemble support. In the second movement, this skin begins to break apart or be scraped apart. The accordion lashes out of its skin. The grain without its hull may become an object of growth, an object of decay, or an object of nourishment. I haven’t yet written that part."

Notably, Katherine Balch was recently awarded a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship. Read more here.

Listen to Patricia Auchterlonie performing Katherine Balch's these intervals matter (2020) as part of the VOICEBOX Showcase in the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings

To learn more about Katherine Balch, visit schott-music.com.

Katherine Balch
husk (2025) 
for accordion and ensemble
1(bfl, pic).0.1(bcl).1(cbsn)-1.1.1.0-1perc(vib, crot, tam-t, cym (chinese or sus), b.d, lg tom, med tom, s.d, tamb, guiro, pic wdbl, ribbed plastic waterbottle, 2 graduated glass bottles, frog guiro, coarse ceramic tile, capiz shell or glass chimes, waldteufel)-pno-solo acc-1vn.1va.1vc.1db
15'
Preview the score

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