In March 2018, the world premiere of acclaimed composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra's “Talking Gong” for flute, percussion and piano took place in Studley Theatre on the New Paltz campus.
Susie Ibarra is a Filipina-American 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). Recent commissions include Kronos String Quartet’s 50 for the Future Project Pulsation, PRISM Saxophone Quartet + Percussion’s Procession Along the Aciga Tree, Talking Gong trio with pianist Alex Peh and flautist Claire Chase, film score When the Storm Fades directed by Sean Devlin, and a multimedia game piece Fragility: An Exploration of Polyrhythms for Asia Society.
Ibarra is a 2020 National Geographic Explorer grantee in Storytelling and 2019 United States Artist Fellow in Music. She is a 2014 Senior TED Fellow and a 2018 Asian Cultural Council Fellow in support of her sound research of An Acoustic Story on Climate Change: Himalayan Glacier Soundscapes. She is recording and researching sound along the Ganges from source to sink in collaboration with glaciologist and geomorphologist Michele Koppes. Ibarra leads the DreamTime Ensemble, which recently released the album Perception, a suite of music exploring memory and shifting sensory experiences. She performs in collaborative ensembles Mephista, Yunohana Variations, and LIMBS. With ThinkFun Games, Ibarra is inventing an interactive polyrhythm game to teach rhythms. Since 2012, she has been a faculty member at Bennington College where she teaches percussion, performance, improvisation, and art intervention.
Ibarra is a Yamaha, Vic Firth, and Zildjian 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, and Dr. L Subramaniam.
