17 Facts About Susie Ibarra

Susie Ibarra remains active as a composer, performer, educator, and documentary filmmaker in the US, Philippines, and internationally.

Susie Ibarra is interested and involved in works that blend folkloric and indigenous tradition with avant-garde.

In 2004, Susie Ibarra began field recording indigenous Philippine music, and in 2009 she co-founded Song of the Bird King, an organization focusing on the preservation of Indigenous music and ecology.

The youngest of five children, Susie Ibarra was born in Anaheim, California, and raised in Houston, Texas.

Susie Ibarra began playing piano at the age of four.

Susie Ibarra has studied with notable jazz and avant-jazz drummers Vernel Fournier, Earl Buster Smith, and Milford Graves.

Susie Ibarra has studied Philippine Kulintang music with National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Artist and Danongan "Danny" Kalanduyan and the Kalanduyan family, both in the United States and in Cotabato, Mindanao Philippines.

Susie Ibarra was named "Best Percussionist" in the 2010 Downbeat International Readers Poll and "Best Percussionist, Rising Star" in the 2009 and 2011 Downbeat Critics Poll.

Susie Ibarra has been featured on the cover of percussion magazines such as Tom Tom and Modern Drummer.

Susie Ibarra is a Yamaha Drums, Vic Firth, and Paiste Cymbals Artist.

Susie Ibarra continues to tour and perform internationally in music festivals and other venues.

Susie Ibarra began field recording kulintang gong music in the Philippines in 2004.

Susie Ibarra received a 2010 TED Fellowship, a 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for music composition, and a 2008 Asian Cultural Council Rockefeller fellowship.

In 2004, Susie Ibarra recorded Folkloriko, a cycle of 11 pieces dedicated to a day in the life of a Filipino migrant worker.

In 2006 Susie Ibarra released, Dialects by Electric Kulintang on Plastic Records, a duo collaboration with Roberto Juan Rodriguez with compositions featuring electronics, kulintang gongs, percussion, drums and field recordings.

Also in 2008, Susie Ibarra composed and recorded the music for video installation art, Madre Selva: Homage to Ana Mendieta, created by Visual Artist and Guggenheim Fellow, Juan Sanchez for his exhibition at Lehigh University's Zoellner Arts Center, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

In 2010 Music Theatre Group produced two residencies of Saturnalia, a new music theatre work, composed by Susie Ibarra, written by Yusef Komunyakaa, directed by Daniel Fish and music directed by John diPinto.