Dream Catcher was written for and is dedicated to Maria Schleuning. Thomas wrote: "My primary focus was to celebrate Maria's sublime talents and musicality throughout. I think of this piece as open, happy, optimistic, and sunny. You can smell the perfumes of my musical "grandparents": Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, Mahler, Berg, Berio, Brahms, American jazz, and so on but Dream Catcher is a totally personal piece in my own language. It is not 'stolen Debussy' or 'paraphrased Stravinsky.' It is all my own invention. I never repeat anything exactly. The motives are always transforming; everything is an outgrowth of something else."