Filipina-American composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra wins the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition, “Sky Islands,” an expansive piece inspired by Filipino heritage and the Philippine mountain rainforests of Luzon.
“Sky Islands” premiered at the Asia Society of New York on July 18, 2024, and commissioned by Asia Society, along with support from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), and NYFA Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Artists Grants.
The piece’s premiere featured an eight-piece music ensemble, including the Extended Filipino Talking Gong Ensemble with Ibarra and Levy Lorenzo on percussion, Claire Chase on flute, and Alex Peh on piano. They are joined by the Bergamot Quartet with violinists Ledah Finck and Sarah Thomas, cellist Irène Tan, and violist Amy Huimei Tan.
Additionally, Ibarra captures the beautiful mountain tops of rainforests through sound and sculpture, performing the piece on “Floating Gardens,” which are sound sculptures of gong metals floating on a pond.
Check out highlights of the premiere performance below:
Born in Anaheim, California to Filipino physicians and raised in Houston, Texas, Ibarra’s family migrated to the United States in the 1970s. In 2013, she was named one of SPIN’s 100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music. She incorporates various styles and influences of Philippine Kulintang, jazz, classical, theater, opera, musical, poetry, and electronic music.
Currently, Ibarra is a composer, educator, performer, and documentary filmmaker based in the US. Aside from being honored the Pulitzer, Ibarra won USD 15,000 or roughly PHP 835,000.
The Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards first given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in “journalism, arts and letters.” The Pulitzer Prize for Music was first given in 1943.
The first Filipino to receive a Pulitzer was diplomat, journalist, soldier, and National Artist for Literature, Carlos P. Romulo, who received the Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence in 1942 for his coverage of World War II. Journalist Manuel Mogato received the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his coverage of President Duterte’s war on drugs in 2018.