Zosha Di Castri has been commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to write a work for clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and digital keyboard. Entitled Hypha: Five Miniatures for Suzanne Simard, the piece will receive its world premiere on December 8, 2022 at 7:30pm at Lincoln Center's Rose Studio and will also be livestreamed. CMS artists Mika Sasaki (piano), Kristen Lee (violin), Mihai Marica (cello), and Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet) will perform.

The title refers to one of the threadlike filaments forming the mycelium, an underground fungal network connecting the roots of trees. Simard’s pioneering scientific work, which revealed how these webs facilitate some form of intelligent communication between trees in forests, helped inspire the piece. "I’d been thinking a lot about trees," says Di Castri, "not only the texture of their bark, branching arms, and roots, but also their resilience and adaptability—growing through abandoned buildings and breaking through sidewalks—I was fascinated by their deep subterranean connections and their abilities to recover and sustain one another." Although the connection between these themes and the music is abstract, Di Castri says, 'the music is made of micro-gestures shared across the movements and musicians, interwoven in a way that could suggest such networks."

For tickets and livestream information, see here.