Susie Ibarra Trilogy Releases & Book of Scores
- susieibarra
- May 9
- 6 min read
Susie Ibarra at Sacred Glacial Lake Tsmongo, Sikkim Himalayas, photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh
It’s been a moment since I’ve written a note in Sound Health Habitat Journal. I mean its been almost exactly 4 months. I’m extending my warm greetings to you all and good wishes, light and love. I hope you all are taking care of yourself and each other during these times and finding yourself supported in community and space to be creative, healthy and loved, and to each your own productivity.
I’m happy to say I will be back on Sound Health Habitat Journal weekly . This week I am announcing personally my scores and recordings which I’m super excited to share I have completed in this last year during my fellowship with DAAD Artist in Berlin Program as a Music and Sound Fellow 2024-2025. Next week I will be sharing the work of my team, collaborators, and with Nat Geo support our work in the Himalayas a little more in depth and what that has looked like and sounded like in both the Ganga Basin and the Himalayas over the last 8 years.
Getty Image by Anoop Kumar, Sacred Glacial Lake Tsmongo, Sikkim Himalayas
In this time I have been studiously working on and completing 4 new scores of which my large work, oratorio, a set of kundiman love songs, culminated in a world premiere in Berlin , CHAN: Sonnets and Devotions in the Wilderness, in March 26, 2025 with MaerzMusik 2025 Berliner Festspiele produced with DAAD Artist in Berlin Program and recorded by Deutschlandfunk Kultur, KlangKunst Program. Stay tuned as we announce next week the Radio Broadcast!
My body has been filled with many sounds and music notes floating around and inhabiting it.
Sikkim Himalayas, photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh
CHAN: Sonnets and Devotions in the Wilderness, photo by Camille Blake for MaerzMusik 2025 Berliner Festspiele at the Gedächtniskirche Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, World Premiere 2025 March 26.
And within these pieces, I completed 3 very special scores to me, their world premieres AND so exhibilarated to say their recording too, which I am immensely grateful for. I am really proud of the work that everyone involved has done with me. The pieces are all inspired deeply by our biodiverse habitats and fragile ecosystems.
I will write about this more at one moment, but it has been such an exceptional week for me.. Receiving the news of having won the Pulitzer Prize in Music for my piece Sky Islands , composed for my dear trio Claire Chase, Alex Peh, and extended ensemble with Levy Lorenzo and Bergamot Quartet was such a surprise , such an honor and beyond incredible.
Sky Islands photo fo Talking Gong with Alex Peh and Claire Chase, Susie Ibarra , World Premiere at Asia Society NY , July 18 & 20, 2024
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to share your love and support. It means so much to me. I have heard from so many of you from all parts and all moments of my life check in. I feel your kindness and support and joy, and I’m sending my love and gratitude back to you all.
And with this update, I’m happy to say that this is the announcement from our label Habitat Sounds of what I have been working hard at in collaboration with so many great people who are artists or in production to create as a part of this year’s releases, my own personal work.
You can drop into my website , Susieibarra.com , tap on Store - to purchase the pre-order of the first album of a trilogy this year -Digital or Limited Vinyl. Here you can see the beautiful artwork of artist and percussionist Hisham Bharoocha. Hope you can stop by and listen and learn about the pieces and the artists who have performed and recorded these works with me. Here’s the info and the pre-order! I hope to see you soon!
To Pre-Order Digital or Limited Vinyl click on the link
HABITAT SOUNDS : Susie Ibarra Trilogy Releases and Book of Scores
Habitat Sounds is announcing the roll out of a trilogy of releases of compositions and recordings by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Susie Ibarra, with a book of scores to follow.
These pieces were completed, premiered, and recorded during a special time of her 2024 DAAD fellowship in music and sound in Berlin, Germany.
- Parallels and Confluence: Bugang and Pasig Rivers - piano quintet with dual rivers in stereo composed by Ibarra for Arneis String Quartet and featuring Daniel Louis Doña and Alex Peh
To Pre-Order Digital or Limited Vinyl click on the link
- Sky Islands - Ibarra’s Pulitzer Prize winning composition written for Extended Talking Gong Ensemble featuring herself, Claire Chase, Alex Peh, Levy Lorenzo, and Bergamot String Quartet; Ledah Finck, Sarah Thomas, Amy Huimei Tan, and Irène Han
- CHAN: Sonnets and Devotions in the Wilderness - Ibarra’s most recent composition recently premiered in Berlin as a culmination of her 2024 DAAD Fellowship in music and sound - featuring poets Don Lee Choi and Logan February, and Ensemble; Otay:onii (Lane Shi), Martin Nagy, Daniel Louis Doña, Caleb Salgado, Michiko Ogawa, Jake Landau, Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir, Elena Kakaliagou, Hilary Jeffery, Sebastian Heindl, and herself. This composition and performance was commissioned by MaerzMusik2025 Berliner Festspiele , produced with DAAD Artist in Berlin Program and recorded by Deutschlandfunk Culture
The first album to release of the trilogy will be Parallels and Confluence: Bugang and Pasig Rivers. Digital and limited vinyl Pre-Order now available, and will ship and release digitally on September 12, 2025.
Sky Islands will follow on November 21, 2025, and CHAN: Sonnets and Devotions in the Wilderness on January 16, 2026. A book of scores to accompany these album releases along with several additional scores I have been writing and completed in this last year will come out in the book on December 5, 2025.
Bugang River in the Philippines is situated in the north of Panay Island in the town of Pandan Antique, and is known to be the cleanest river inlet in the Philippines. People often swim, tube, relax, and enjoy its crystal clear waters. Pasig River in the Philippines, flows along the capital city and is historical in the development of the city Manila, on Luzon Island, and is one of the most polluted rivers in the Philippines. Although there have been attempts to clean this river over the years, it’s garbage filled and polluted waters still line the communities on the banks of the river, making it dangerous and near impossible to use the water as a resource for cleaning, washing, swimming. Both rivers are integral and important to the communities that live along the banks.
Parallels and Confluence: Bugang and Pasig Rivers is a love story between these 2 rivers and written in the style of a Kundiman, a Filipino love song structure.
Composed for piano quintet featuring Arneis Quartet and pianist Alex Peh, the performance and score also includes dual rivers to be placed in quad in the performance space, and mixed in stereo for the album release, each distinctly flowing in its own speaker at points in the score, mirroring the difference in the 2 rivers.
The river sounds you hear were field recorded by Ibarra and multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, and field recordist Jake Landau on multiple trips to the Ganges River in India and Sikkim. The Ganges at different points, mirrors the Bugang and Pasig rivers in its purity and pollution, where at the source the glacial runoff is clear and clean, near the sink it is heavily polluted.
The live river mix was played by Landau.
Parallels and Confluence was commissioned by the Arneis Quartet as part of their Kaisahan Initiative and premiered on 7 April, 2024 at First Church Boston. This album is a live recording of the premiere concert.
This album also includes Laktawan at Tumolon, a duet piece commissioned by Daniel Louis Doña and composed by Susie Ibarra for viola and kulintang. Meaning literally Skip and Jump, this composition plays with the feeling and lightness of skipping and jumping across stones as a child in streams for Ibarra. It also alludes to the folkloric Filipino story that kulintang gongs originated in 14th century from a princess in Mindanao, Philippines pulling stones out of the water and playing them in pitches. These stones were then emulated in metal gongs.
These purchases are PRE-ORDERS for the album Parallels and Confluence: Bugang and Pasig Rivers, and will be delivered to you digitally if you purchase the digital copy on the release date of Parallels and Confluence: Bugang and Pasig River, September 12, 2025, and will be shipped out on the release date if you purchase the vinyl.
Album Credits -
Composed by - Susie Ibarra
Arneis Quartet -
Heather Braun - violin
Rose Drucker - violin
Daniel Louis Doña - viola
Agnes Kim - cello
Alex Peh - piano
Jake Landau - Live mix of 2 Rivers in Quad
Susie Ibarra - Kulintang
Recorded by - Dave Jamrog
Mixed and Mastered by - Jake Landau
Album artwork by Hisham A. Bharoocha
© Susie Ibarra ASCAP
To Pre-Order Digital or Limited Vinyl click on the link
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