Composer Susie Ibarra Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music

Ibarra has won $15,000 for her piece “Sky Islands” about ecosystems and biodiversity

Awarded annually since 1943, the Pulitzer Prize for Music recognizes a distinguished musical composition by an American that had its first performance or recording produced in the U.S. during the year. 

The 2025 winner is the Filipinx composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra for her work “Sky Islands,” which draws attention to the earth’s biodiversity, changing climate, and global community practices. 

Having premiered on July 18, 2024, at the Asia Society in New York (which commissioned the work), Ibarra’s piece was awarded for its ability to “[challenge] the notion of the compositional voice by interweaving the profound musicianship and improvisational skills of a soloist as a creative tool.”

Based on ecosystems and biodiversity, “Sky Islands” is inspired by the distinct rainforest habitats of Luzon in the Philippines, and features the interlocking rhythms and melodies of Philippine Northern style bamboo, gong, and flute music. At the premiere, the work was performed on new sound sculptures of gong metals called Floating Gardens.

Ibarra composed the work for her eight-piece music ensemble, including flutist Claire Chase, pianist Alex Peh, and Levy Lorenzo and herself on percussion, plus the Bergamot Quartet comprising violinists Ledah Finck and Sarah Thomas, violist Amy Huimei Tan, and cellist Irène Han.

Co-chaired by Elizabeth Alexander and Emily Ramshaw, the Board presiding over the 2025 judging process comprised Anne Applebaum, John Archibald, Nancy Barnes, Nicole Carroll, Walter Cronkite, Sewell Chan, Gina Chua, Jelani Cobb, Gabriel Escobar, Carlos Lozada, Kelly Lytle Hernández, Kevin Merida, Marjorie Miller, Viet Thanh Nguyen, David Remnick, Claire Shipman, Ginger Thompson, and Natasha Trethewey. 

For the full list of 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners, click here.

An excerpt of “Sky Islands” can be viewed below.

Among her many multidisciplinary projects, Ibarra is the founder of Susie Ibarra Studio and of the label and publisher Habitat Sounds alongside artist-musician and engineer Jake Landau. 

She also works to support Indigenous and traditional music cultures, the stewardship of glaciers and freshwaters, initiatives addressing water and desert climate, and women and girls' education with the music school Joudour Sahara in Morocco. 

Ibarra leads several ensembles, including the Talking Gong Trio with Claire Chase and Alex Peh, plus has recorded albums with Graham Reynolds, Jeffrey Zeigler, Richard Reed Parry, and the Arneis String Quartet. 

Her honors include a 2024 DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program fellowship and a 2024 Charles Ives Fellowship with the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has also served as a Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2022 Music Fellow, United States Artists 2019 Music Fellow, TED Senior Fellow 2014, and NatGeo Explorers Storyteller 2020.