Composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra returns to Roulette with Talking Gong featuring flutist Claire Chase and pianist Alex Peh. This dynamic trio emerged out of the premiere of the title piece commissioned for SUNY New Paltz in 2018 when Ibarra was Davenport Composer in Residence, and the release of their album Talking Gong on New Focus Recordings this January 2021.
Talking Gong will perform an evening program of music featuring compositions by Ibarra from their album, as well as Ibarra’s series of solos as bird songs of the sunbird, hummingbird, and kingfisher for piano, flute and drums. The trio joined by electronic artist Senem Pirler will also perform a version of The Witness by Pauline Oliveros, an improvisation-based score that asks performers to witness and respond to their environments (natural, acoustic, somatic, political…) through a series of deep listening strategies. Peh and Chase will perform a duet inspired by the blackbird, The Merle Noir, by Olivier Messiaen. Amidst the program are conduction pieces by Ibarra, a mixture of motivic scores and improvisation that highlight the trio’s unique sound world and musical chemistry.
Claire Chase: piccolo, flute, alto and bass flutes
Alex Peh: piano
Susie Ibarra: drumset, kulintang, gandingan, agong, and percussion
Senem Pirler: electronics on The Witness
“An album of joy and insight, sophisticated technique and improvisational delight, Talking Gong is a nuanced universe of sound grounded in traditional musical roots and natural splendor” Franz Matzner, Drop the Needle, April 2021 NYC Jazz Record
“This riveting set from Susie Ibarra has a talkative disposition, even when its overall mood is contemplative. Whether she’s playing solos, duets, or trios with pianist Alex Peh and flutist Claire Chase, the percussionist speaks with a language all her own. The music here has a sense of tension and release that is positively addictive” The Best of Jazz on Bandcamp: Jan 2021
Merienda
Kolubrí
Kingfisher
Sunbird
Talking Gong
compositions by Susie Ibarra ASCAP
The Witness
composition by Pauline Oliveros
1989 copyright Deep Listening Publications
All Rights Reserved The Ministry of Maåt, Inc.
( PopandMom.org) ASCAP
Le Merle Noire
composition by Olivier Messiaen
Talking Gong is a new trio featuring Claire Chase, Alex Peh and Susie Ibarra. This dynamic trio emerged effortlessly in the music out of its title composition which was originally commissioned for SUNY New Paltz when Ibarra was Davenport Composer in Residence in 2018. The trio went on to record this composition and a selection of solo, duet and trio compositions and Ibarra’s conduction pieces utilizing both composition and improvisation for their new release Talking Gong on New Focus Recordings Jan 2021. Amidst the music are conduction pieces by Ibarra which feature the playfullness and unique soundworld that Chase, Peh and Ibarra create.
Susie Ibarra is a Filipinx composer, percussionist, and sound artist. She creates immersive experiences through sound to invite people to connect to their natural and built environments. Susie is a 2020 National Geographic Explorer Storyteller, a 2019 Doris Duke United States Artist Fellow in Music, Senior TED Fellow and 2019 Asian Cultural Council Research Fellow in working to preservation and support Indigenous music and culture, Musika Katatubo, in the Philippines, and sound recording on glaciers and water rhythms in the Himalayas. Recent commissions include Water Rhythms: Listening to Climate Change installations with glaciologist and geographer Michele Koppes for Fine Acts Foundation and TED Countdown on Climate Change Oct 2020, Rhythm Cycles solo drumset commissioned by Bagri Foundation and released on OTOROKU Digital UK Nov 2020; Digital Sanctuaries Harvard an urban soundwalk for iOS and iPAD commissioned and created with Claire Chase’s Freshman Seminar: Community Building and Social Justice Through Music Dec 2020; Pulsation for Kronos String Quartet’s 50 for the Future Feb 2020, and a participatory performance game piece Fragility Etudes for her band DreamTime Ensemble for Asia Society Triennial 2021.
Claire Chase, described by The New York Times as “the most important flutist of our time,” is a soloist, collaborative artist, curator, educator and advocate for new and experimental music. Chase founded the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2001, was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2012, and in 2017 was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She teaches at Harvard University and is a Creative Associate at The Juilliard School.
Alex Peh is a contemporary pianist and teacher whose work explores the intersection of classical,
contemporary and world piano traditions. He collaborated with Burmese master percussionist Kyaw Kyaw Naing to create the first Burmese Hsaing Waing ensemble in America that features the piano in traditional Burmese Sandaya style. This project received major funding from New Music USA, Asian Cultural Council, and Arts Mid-Hudson. As a 2019 Asian Cultural Council fellow, he traveled to Yangon Myanmar to study Burmese piano style with Dr. U Yee Nwe and taught at the Gitameit Music Institute. Alex has performed widely nationally and internationally, sharing special partnerships with artists Susie Ibarra, Claire Chase, Kyaw Kyaw Naing, and Phyllis Chen. Alex has attended the Banff, Aspen, and Tanglewood music festivals where he worked with Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Paul Lewis Emanuel Ax, and Peter Serkin. He has studied with major artists such as Arnaldo Cohen, Menahem Pressler, Sylvia Wang, Evelyne Brancart, and Kyaw Kyaw Naing. He is an associate professor of piano at SUNY New Paltz.
Senem Pirler is a sound/intermedia artist whose work is interdisciplinary in nature. Pirler’s recent work has been exhibited at EMPAC, BAC, Montalvo Arts Center, Mount Tremper Arts, and Collar Works. Her work has been recognized by grants, residencies, and awards including most recently Institute for Electronic Arts residency, PACT Zollverein residency, Signal Culture residency, and The Malcolm S. Morse Graduate Research Enhancement Award to honor the work of Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening in 2018. Pirler earned her M.M. in Music Technology from NYU Steinhardt, and her Ph.D. in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Pirler joined the Bennington College faculty in Fall 2018.
Susie Ibarra Talking Gong album release on New Focus Recordings Jan 2021 was supported in part by New Music USA.