“Ibarra is one of the all too few jazz artists who combine prodigious talent with cultural awareness to create art and make the world a better place in the process" - Elliott Simon AAJ- NY 2009
"Composer and Percussionist Susie Ibarra is known for her individual artistry on percussion and genre-defying music. In the past decade, her willingness to step out from behind the kit and embrace non jazz forms-opera, poetry experimental sound, dance-has taken her from that initial buzz from below Houston Street to international reknown as a composer, performer and proponent of folkloric music." - Catapano, New York Times 2007
Composer/Percussionist Susie Ibarra resides in New York and has performed both as a soloist and collaborator in various configurations. Known for her innovative style and virtuosity Ibarra creates cultural dialogue through her music, interdisciplinary art, teaching and documentary/field recordings. She is honored to be a 2010 TED Fellow. Ibarra is a Yamaha, Vic Firth and Paiste Artist and recipient of a 2008 Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to research Indigenous Philippine music. She founded with Cuban Composer/Percussionist Roberto Rodriguez SONG OF THE BIRD KING LLC, to preserve with film and music Indigenous culture and ecology. Their title film, Song of the Bird King, tells the stories of land and loss of seven endangered Indigenous Philippine Tribes and the near extinct Philippine Eagle through music and a musician’s journey home.
In 2010 Ibarra will be in residency with Pulitzer Poet Yusef Komunyakaa and Music-Theatre Group in Brooklyn NY to workshop Saturnalia, a chamber performance piece set in Thailand that addresses war and AIDS. She will also be performing a new program of music Mysteries of Nature: Music for Strings and Percussion featuring Susie Ibarra Quartet. Ibarra has recorded and performed with numerous artists and her can be heard on Drum Sketches, EK Dialects, Folkloriko and Mundo Niños. Whether performing a concerto at Carnegie Hall, performing Electric Kulintang, or field recording in Mindanao, Ibarra listens to the musical dialogue. It is a language of traditions and avant-garde. This language has brought her to serve children and Indigneous communities globally.
2010 Lectures and Workshops include: A roundtable with The Tipping Point on Artists and Climate Change at the Arts Presenters Conference; Composer portrait of cross–cultural music with Philadelphia Music Project/Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Panel discussion on The Cultural Role of the Avant-Garde at Encounter IAM, Mundo Niños childrens workshops with BplusC Leiden, Netherlands.
Several recent compositions and performances in 2007-2009 include:
MoMA Summergarden, Jazz At Lincoln Center series, NYC 2008
Susie barra has recorded over 40 cds/records. Her music as a soloist and collaborator can be heard on:
She has performed and toured internationally at numerous festivals and concert series, and has performed and collaborated with noted artists such as:
Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Yusef Komunyakaa, Trisha Brown, Tania Leon, Roberto Juan Rodriguez, Makoto Fujimura, Juan Sanchez, Jude Tallichet, Laiwan Chung, Min Xiao-Fen, Derek Bailey, Ikue Mori, Sylvie Courvoisier, William Parker, David S. Ware, Billy Bang, Jeanne Lee, Miya Masaoka, Dr. L Subramaniam, Kavita Krishnamurti, Wang Ping, Luis Francia, Wadada Leo Smith, Mark Dresser, Kathleen Supove, Jennifer Choi, Craig Taborn, Bridget Kibbey, Jade Simmons, Arto Lindsay, Thurston Moore, Prefuse 73, Yo La Tengo among others.
Ibarra has taught across the U.S and conducted artist residencies at: Princeton University Columbia University, PASIC: Percussive Arts Society, Brooklyn College, Dartmouth, Hampshire College, The Banff Centre, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Mass, The Walker Art Center , Mills College, Bard College, Swarthmore College, Fundacio Joan Miro, University of Michigan, Oberlin, Indiana University as well as guest residencies and workshops with American Composers Orchestra and ASCAP and performance and iimprovisation ensemble for The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.
She received her music diploma from Mannes College of Music, B.A. from Goddard College, and has studied drumset with visionary Milford Graves, the late Vernel Fournier and Buster Smith and Philippine Kulintang with master kulintang artist Danongan Kalanduyan and the Kalanduyan family.
Several Recent Lectures and Workshops include:
*Performance and Improvisation Ensemble, The New School Jazz and Contemporary Music, Fall 2008, NYC
*Mundo Niños Childrens Workshops and Concert, Feb-March 2008, Leiden, Holland