Susie Ibarra

Susie Ibarra is a Filipina-American composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Her sound is like no other's, incorporating the unique percussion and musical approach of her Filipino heritage with her flowing jazz drum set style. 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). Susie's work includes recording and researching sound along the Ganges in collaboration with glaciologist and geomorphologist Michele Koppes. For her sound research of An Acoustic Story on Climate Change: Himalayan Glacier Soundscapes she is a Senior TED Fellow and an Asian Cultural Council Fellow. Susie is a National Geographic Explorer grantee in Storytelling and a United States Artist Fellow in Music. She also leads the DreamTime Ensemble, which recently released the album Perception, exploring memory and shifting sensory experiences.

Photo: Tony Cenicola