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Susie Ibarra is a Pilipinx composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Her sound has been described as “a sound like no other’s, incorporating the unique percussion and musical approach of her Filipino heritage with her flowing jazz drumset style” (Modern Drummer Magazine) and her compositions are sometimes described as “calling up the movements of the human body; elsewhere it’s a landscape vanishing in the last light, or the path a waterway might trace” (New York Times).
Her interdisciplinary practice spans formats, including performance, mobile sound-mapping applications, multi-channel audio installations, recording, and documentary. Many of Ibarra’s projects are based in cultural and environmental preservation: she has worked to support Indigenous and traditional music cultures, such as Philippine musika katatubo from the North and South Philippine islands; her sound research advocates for the stewardship of glaciers and freshwaters; and she collaborates
has collaborated with The Joudour Sahara Music Program in Morocco on initiatives that help preserve traditional sound-based heritage with sustainable music practices and with an initiative that supports the participation of women and girls in traditional music communities.
New works include album releases Rhythm Cycles, a drum solo performance commissioned by the Bagri Foundation and released with OTO Projects UK (2020); and the composer portrait album, Talking Gong, featuring Claire Chase and Alex Peh with Ibarra on New Focus Recordings (2021) and Water Rhythms Listening Room, a multichannel sound installation created mapping 5 water towers source to sink in collaboration with climate scientist Michele Koppes for a 2021 commission for Arko Art Center Museum Seoul Korea Sept-Dec, TED Countdown Climate Conference Edinburgh UK and Fridman Gallery exhibition in Beacon NY Nov/Dec 2021. Ibarra received a 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award in Music/Sound , 2020 National Geographic Explorer in Storytelling, 2019 United States Artist Fellow in Music, and a 2018 Asian Cultural Council Scholar supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. She is a Senior TED Fellow and a Yamaha, Zildjian, and Vic Firth drum artist.
Performances:
She has performed at numerous festivals and concert halls including: Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall NYC, The Barbican Theatre London, The Noguchi Museum, The Exploratorium San Francisco, Pioneer Works Brooklyn, Smithsonian Institute, Library of Congress, Sharjah Art Foundation and Biennial , REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney/Calarts Theatre, The Kitchen, The Serpentine Summer Festival and Gallery Pavilion London, Modern Art Museum MoMA Summer Garden, TED Long Beach, TED Vancouver and TED Global Rio, Thames River Festival for the London 2012 Olympics, , Music and Social Gastronomy at the Refettorio for Rio 2016 Olympics, Sacred Music Festival of Fez Morocco 2016, National Museum of Wildlife Art, EMPAC Rensselear RPI, Ecstatic Music Festival, Electronic Music Festival
Collaborating Artists:
Susie Ibarra has recorded albums as a leader, collaborator and soloist. She has performed with many artists including Yuka Honda, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Laurie Anderson, Makoto Fujimura, Claire Chase, Alex Peh, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Pauline Oliveros, Ikue Mori, Tashi Dorji, Brian Chase, Tarek Atoui, , Kronos String Quartet, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Sylvie Courvoisier, Tania Leon, Yoshimio, Marc Ribot, Min Xiao Fen, Jin Hi Kim, Juan Sanchez, Roberto Juan Rodriguez, Anthony Davis, Yusef Komunyakaa, Trisha Brown, Daniel Fish, Mark Dresser, William Parker, John Lindberg, Kathleen Supove, Jennifer Choi, Bridget Kibbey, Dr. L Subramaniam
2021 Albums
Walking on Water, music album created by Susie Ibarra for painting by Makoto Fujimura in direct response the 3/11 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami and victims of climate crisis
https://music.apple.com/us/album/walking-on-water/1559797968
Talking Gong
https://music.apple.com/us/album/susie-ibarra-talking-gong/1547270794
Susie Ibarra Evokes Land and Community In Talking Gong
https://icareifyoulisten.com/2021/02/susie-ibarra-evokes-land-and-community-in-talking-gong/
Web September 2021:
Roulette TV, Susie Ibarra Talking Gong with Claire Chase and Alex Peh
Video of concert with interview
Direct link: https://vimeo.com/600572034
Roulette Website: https://roulette.org/rtv/rtv-susie-ibarra-talking-gong-with-claire-chase-and-alex-peh/
Installation of Water Rhythms
https://www.fridmangallery.com/waterrhythms
https://fineacts.co/water-rhythms
Podcasts 2021:
Water Rhythms : Listening to Climate Change
StoryMaps of Water Rhythms
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c0fba3ed339f46868197c4409947c471
Podcast Interview: Susie Ibarra Hybrid Culture
July 2021 Interview with New Music USA for SoundLives
https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/susie-ibarra-hybrid-culture/
https://soundlives.fireside.fm/7
Digital Apps on Apple App Store:
Music and Water Routes of Fez , iOS and iPAD
Digital Sanctuaries New York City iOS app
Digital Sanctuaries Harvard iOS app
Digital Sanctuaries Pittsburgh iOS app
Cultural and Environmental Preservation in the Draa Valley, South Sahara Morocco
2021-2023 projects of recordings of traditional musicians ensembles. 2022-2023 Open Labs project with Sonic Matter, gender development with music education to support women and girls in music in Morocco and the North Africa region. Collaborations with Joudour Sahara Music School, Sonic Matter & Prohelvetia Zurich, Playing for Change Foundation and Splice https://playingforchange.org/joudour-sahara-music-program/
Upcoming Soundpack for Splice February 2022, Sounds of the Draa Valley, Morocco
https://vimeo.com/658014098/2fe0661004
Film:
RITWAL, ( Ritual) solo percussion Susie Ibarra
Commissioned film for Undrum Festival 2021 with Suoni Per Il Popolo
Susie Ibarra Youtube Channel
The Cotabato Sessions
Kulintang Music of Mindanao with Danongan Kalanduyan and the Kalanduyan Family
passcode: Cotabato
Fragility Etudes, The pieces are studies into a world of sound that reflect humanity's interdependence and mutual existence alongside the natural environment.
Asia Society Triennnial 2021 , We Do Not Dream Alone
Music by Susie Ibarra , Film by Yuka C. Honda
https://vimeo.com/562880405/1975696fbe
CARETAKERS Directed by Geena Rocero, film score for the docuseries by Susie Ibarra. In honor of Filipino American History Month, Caretakers looks at the history of Filipinos in care work and profiles Filipino Americans on the front lines today. According to Caretakers’ creator Geena Rocero, the four-part docuseries shows “Filipinos as we are, and tells the stories of not just nurses, but all types of people providing vital care.”
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/chasing-the-dream/series/caretakers/
Soundpacks on Splice:
March 4, 2022, Album and 2 Soundpacks release with Montage Soundpack Label with Splice , OFFAIR Records and Universal Canada, Richard Reed Parry and Susie Ibarra, Heart and Breath: Rhythm and Tone Fields
Music compositions and soundpacks created as a duet with breath cycles and heartbeats
Sounds of the Draa Valley, Morocco Feb 25, 2022
On Sonic Collective Label on Splice
https://vimeo.com/658014098/2fe0661004
Experimental Percussion with Susie Ibarra on Splice Originals
https://splice.com/sounds/splice-originals/experimental-percussion-with-susie-ibarra
Water Rhythms on Splice Explores
https://splice.com/sounds/splice-explores/water_rhythms
Himalayas on Splice Explores
https://splice.com/sounds/splice-explores/splice-explores-himalayas
Quartet compositions:
Pulsation
For Kronos String Quartet, 50 for the Future
https://50ftf.kronosquartet.org/composers/susie-ibarra
Procession Along the Aciga Tree
For PRISM Saxophone Quartet. , Color Theory 2.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJw5G-dAtGs
Kit: Music for 4 pianists, commissioned for Ars Nova Workshop
These Trees That Speak, commissioned for Ethos Percussion Quartet
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