2007 release ** "Susie Ibarra is a percussionist, but she doesn’t hit you over the head with the fact. Rather, her powerfully delicate, insistent sounds seem to emanate from the landscape of drums and tuned gongs by themselves. Drum Sketches, Ibarra’s first solo CD following several Tzadik ensemble releases, is inspired by various images and sounds of her native Philippines. Among her glowing array of percussion are tuned bronze Kulintang gongs and a Surunay xylophone that blend with field recordings of boat festivals, a baby’s heartbeat, and evening peeper frogs. Drum Sketches on stage is a collaborative performance of live painting by visual artist Makoto Fujimura. It was commissioned by Neues Kabarett at the Brecht Forum NYC and premiered May 5, 2007. Susie Ibarra, percussionist and composer lives in New York City and Kerhonksen. She received a music diploma from Mannes College of Music and B.A. from Goddard College. She studied Kulintang with Danongan Kalanduyan and drum set with Buster Smith, Vernel Fournier and Milford Graves. As a percussionist, she has performed southeast Asian gong music, jazz, avant-garde, improvised and solo concert works. She has performed with many great artists such as John Zorn, Dave Douglas Pauline Oliveros, Derek Bailey, Ikue Mori, Sylvie Courvoisier, William Parker, Dr. L Subramaniam, Kavita Krishnamurti, John Lindberg, Wadada Leo Smith, Mark Dresser, Thurston Moore, Savath and Savalas, Prefuse 73, Yo La Tengo, among others."