“Spores take off toward unknown destinations, mate across types, and at least occasionally, give rise to new organisms—a beginning for new kinds. Spores are hard to pin down; that is their grace.” —Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World 

Spores is the second generation of a piece initially written in 2017. We had to cancel the premiere due to illness, and the intervening years have been dense and charged. I have definitely changed, and returning in 2022 to the unrealized 2017 score felt disorienting. I needed to reconceptualize and rework material in order to reconnect with the music. Most significantly, in my revisions I worked to make room for everyone in the ensemble to have more nuanced and varied listening and improvisational experiences, to give us space to explore “the spore-filled airy stratosphere” together. —Katherine Young