September 2025: Composer of the Month

Susie Ibarra: 

Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Sky Islands

Susie Ibarra is a Filipinx-American composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Her interdisciplinary practice includes composition, performance, mobile sound-mapping applications, multichannel audio installations, recording, and documentary. She is the founder of Susie Ibarra Studio and, with artist-musician and engineer Jake Landau, co-founded the label and publisher Habitat Sounds. She works to support Indigenous and traditional music cultures, like musika katutubo from the Philippines, advocates for the stewardship of glaciers and freshwaters, and supports initiatives in addressing water and desert climate, and women and girls’ education with Joudour Sahara, Morocco. Ibarra leads several ensembles including Talking Gong Trio with Claire Chase and Alex Peh. She has recorded over 40 albums and performed in events and venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Olympics, and the Sharjah Biennial.

Recent honors include a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in music, 2025 Creative Capital Artist Award, 2025 Callie’s Studio Residency in Berlin, 2024-2025 DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program fellowship, for which she is based in Berlin, and 2024 Charles Ives Fellowship with the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2022 Music Fellow, United States Artists 2019 Music Fellow, TED Senior Fellow 2014, and National Geographic Explorers Storyteller 2020.

Susie Ibarra is a Yamaha, Zildjian, and Vic Firth Drum Artist.

View Compositions by Susie Ibarra, including Sky Islands