May 2022
Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet European Tour
Myra Melford – piano; Ingrid Laubrock – sax; Mary Halvorson – guitar; Tomeka Reid – cello; Susie Ibarra – drums
April 29 Oslo
April 30 Tours
May 1 London
May 2 Cheltenham
May 3 Ljubljana
May 4 Berlin
May 5 Ulm
May 6 Singen
May 7 Mantova
May 8 Padova
Visionary pianist Myra Melford taps into the elemental nature of inspiration for her exhilarating new project, Fire and Water. The all-star ensemble convenes five of the leading voices in contemporary improvised music: Melford, guitarist Mary Halvorson, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Susie Ibarra. All five women are innovative composers and bandleaders in their own rights as well as being gifted and venturesome improvisers, providing this ensemble a myriad of pathways to explore. Melford has taken full advantage of these uniquely expansive possibilities, crafting a suite of new music that fluidly traverses the borders between notated composition and guided improvisation.
March 2022
March 31, 2022
Laktawan at Tumalon (Skip and Jump)
Composed by Susie Ibarra for Daniel Doña
First Church in Boston, MA
Music for Viola and Kulintang
March 17, 2022
Water in a Shared World: Artist Perspectives (practice or action)
Virtual Panel Discussion, 10 – 11:30 AM ET
Looking forward to this panel with these amazing women artists and advocates: Laeticia Delaunay Badolo, Bahar Behmahani, Vibha Galhotra and moderator Rachel Cooper, Director of Culture as Diplomacy, Asia Socoety.
In advance of World Water Day, Water in a Shared World: Artist Perspectives (practice or action) will feature four artists who have taken artistic practice and expression as a potent means to reach people across the globe. Each of them has interpreted the urgency of the water crisis today as the focus of a creative expression. The circumstances we are living in today require us to connect globally — to share and grapple with the pressing, emerging, threatening challenges that transcend borders. The panelists are deeply concerned about how artistic practice can build awareness and inspire further action. Registration is free to all.
March 16, 2022
Pulsation
at Borealis Music Festival in Bergen, Norway
Music for string quartet + percussion by Susie Ibarra
Performed by BIT20 Ensemble
I am honored to have my work Pulsation performed for the opening of Borealis festival by BIT20 Ensemble String Quartet alongside the works of the amazing artists Roscoe Mitchell and Catherine Lamb and a featured prelude excerpt by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, String Quartet No.1 , which he wrote in 1974, the same year Silvestrov protested the Soviet Union invasion of Czechoslovakia by walking out of the composers union. The festival is also directing people to support and donate the Norwegian Refugee Council to help those who are fleeing Ukraine and others in the world who are in most need at this time. Pulsation was created as a commissioned work for Kronos String Quartet and their project 50 for the Future. So happy to have created this with Kronos and have the piece shared with many.
March 8-15, 2022
Virtual Residency with the Joudour Sahara Music School
in M’hamid El Ghizlane, Morocco
With Composer and Percussionist, Susie Ibarra and the students of Joudour Sahara
Beginning the sound mapping and composing of Drâa Valley, Stories of Water and the Desert in a Changing Climate.
I am honored to continue collaborations with the wonderful community of the Joudour Sahara Music School in M’hamid El Ghizlane, South Sahara, Morocco. Over the next two years (2022-2023), the students – led by girls of the class – will be sound and video mapping, capturing the seasons’ climates year round. They will collectively create a composition that depicts their home, with both its beauty and its cultural and environmental issues. This project will address how the community faces the issue of desertification.
It also, as always, is about music – which is far and wide all over in the Drâa Valley. The Joudour Sahara community also has an abundance of great musicians. Alongside recording and researching, I look forward to both learning and teaching drumming styles to create a conducted large ensemble percussion piece in the new year with the talented youth in the community. Joudour Sahara will also be programming incredible women artists from Morocco and in the region who will be in residency and teaching music at the school.
Sounds of the Drâa Valley, Morocco
OUT NOW
February 25, 2022
Soundpack release on Sonic Collective, Splice
Susie Ibarra’s interview with the Playing For Change Foundation: Announcing a Splice Soundpack from Joudour Sahara
April 2022
Claire Chase & Susie Ibarra with Talking Gong and the Harvard New Music Ensemble
I am so excited and honored to have this special evening of music at Joe’s Pub on April 20th, 2022. Thank you to dear Claire Chase for inviting me and curating an evening of my compositions including our wonderful trio, Talking Gong. Joining us will be the amazing Alex Peh on piano as well as the wonderful Harvard New Music Ensemble for my new work New River, which we premiered in Cambridge last fall 2021. Solos, Duos, Trios and large ensemble happening this evening! If you are in NYC I hope you can join us!