Susie Ibarra: Rhythm in Nature

The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents Filipinx-American composer, percussionist, and sound artist Susie Ibarra, who will present her groundbreaking work at UMBC in a concert, spatial audio installation, and workshop. Ibarra’s interdisciplinary practice focuses on strengthening connections to the natural environment and advocating for stewardship through sound. Ibarra’s work calls upon Asian percussive traditions, jazz sensibilities, as well as on her extensive study in a wide range of interests, including improvisation, sonic mapping, and artistic intervention for societal transformation.

The concert will include performances by the RUCKUS faculty ensemble and UMBC Percussion Ensemble.

Susie Ibarra creates immersive experiences through sound to invite people to connect to their natural and built environments. Her Pulitzer Prize winning work Sky Islands is a musical call to action, highlighting the endangered rainforests of her home region of Luzon, Philippines, with the aim of connecting people to our fragile and beautiful ecosystems and to draw awareness to changing climate and global community practices. Sky Islands was commissioned by the Asia Society in 2022 and had its world premiere in 2024, with additional support from the Fromm Music Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grant. Ibarra works to support Indigenous and traditional music cultures, including Musika Katatube from the Philippines and leads several ensembles, including Talking Gong Trio with Claire Chase and Alex Peh. She has recorded over forty albums and has performed around the world, including at the 2012 Olympics in London, as part of the 2013 Sharjah Biennial, and at Carnegie Hall. Ibarra has received numerous awards and fellowships, including a Creative Capital Artist Award (2025), Callie’s Studio Residency in Berlin (2025), DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program Fellowship (2024-25), the Charles Ives Fellowship (2024) with the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Music Fellowship (2022), a United States Artists Fellowship (2019), a Doris Duke United States Artist Fellow in Music (2019), the National Geographic Explorers Storyteller Award (2020), and a TED Senior Fellowship (2014). Ibarra is the founder of Susie Ibarra Studio and, with artist-musician and engineer Jake Landau, co-founded the label and publisher Habitat Sounds. Her book Rhythm in Nature: An Ecology of Rhythm was published by Habitat Sounds in 2024. She is a Yamaha, Zildjian, and Vic Firth Drum Artist.

Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh.

This event is funded in part by the Arts+ Initiative and the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, with additional support from the Global Asias Initiative.

A spatial audio installation will open at 6:30, followed by a concert at 7:30.

Admission is free. Reservation information is forthcoming.