Cycles and Spheres Project
Join a groundbreaking new project for percussion and voice
Be part of a visionary collaboration that expands the repertoire for percussion and voice with two new works by award winning composers.
By supporting the project, you will assist in funding audio and video production, promotional initiatives, and other critical aspects of bringing these works to the public.
By supporting the project, you will assist in funding audio and video production, promotional initiatives, and other critical aspects of bringing these works to the public.
About the Project
The Cycles and Spheres Project is dedicated to expanding the repertoire for singing percussionist – a rare and expressive performance practice that blends vocal artistry with percussion.
Nathan Juarez has led a commission consortium collaborating with groundbreaking composers Susie Ibarra and Felipe Lara to create new works. The pieces explore the theme Cycles and Spheres, and are written for marimba and voice.
These works will be premiered in March 2026 by Nathan Juarez at the University of Oregon in a recital along with works that share the same theme. They will also be professionally recorded and released in the summer of 2026, expanding the repertoire and performance practice for percussion and voice.
Nathan Juarez has led a commission consortium collaborating with groundbreaking composers Susie Ibarra and Felipe Lara to create new works. The pieces explore the theme Cycles and Spheres, and are written for marimba and voice.
These works will be premiered in March 2026 by Nathan Juarez at the University of Oregon in a recital along with works that share the same theme. They will also be professionally recorded and released in the summer of 2026, expanding the repertoire and performance practice for percussion and voice.
About the Composers
Susie Ibarra
susieibarra.com
susieibarra.com
Susie Ibarra is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 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 a Yamaha, Zildjian, and Vic Firth Drum Artist.
Ibarra 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.
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.
Her book Rhythm in Nature: An Ecology of Rhythm was released in March, 2024.
Recent honors include a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in music for her piece Sky Islands, 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.
Ibarra 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.
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.
Her book Rhythm in Nature: An Ecology of Rhythm was released in March, 2024.
Recent honors include a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in music for her piece Sky Islands, 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.
Felipe Lara
felipelara.com
felipelara.com
Felipe Lara (b.1979) is hailed as a gifted Brazilian-American modernist by the New York Times, with his works described as sensational, exuberant, vivid, brilliantly realized, excellent, technically formidable, wildly varied, and possessing voluptuous, elemental lyricism. He is known for creating unique musical contexts by reinterpreting and translating acoustical and extra-musical properties of familiar source sonorities into project-specific forces.
Lara has garnered commissions from the Arditti Quartet, Brentano Quartet, Claire Chase, Conrad Tao, Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, Helsinki Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, Los Angeles Philharmonic, São Paulo Symphony, and Talea Ensemble. His works have been performed by esperanza spalding, JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, with conductors including Peter Eötvös, Susanna Mälkki, Steven Schick, and Thomas Adès.
His compositions have been featured at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Aspen, Aldeburgh, Ars Musica, Bang on a Can, Berliner Festspiele, Darmstadt, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart, Miller Theatre, Philharmonie de Paris, Sala São Paulo, Teatro La Fenice, TimeSpans Festival, and others.
Lara’s accomplishments include a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist nomination for his Double Concerto and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship from Harvard University. He has received awards from Johns Hopkins University, Prêmio Concerto (São Paulo), New Jersey Council for the Arts, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Funarte, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, and the Staubach Prize (Darmstadt). He has also been commissioned by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, Chamber Music America, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and Fromm Music Foundation.
Currently, Felipe Lara serves as Associate Professor and Chair of the Composition Department at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He holds degrees from Berklee College of Music, Tufts University, and New York University (PhD).
Lara has garnered commissions from the Arditti Quartet, Brentano Quartet, Claire Chase, Conrad Tao, Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, Helsinki Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, Los Angeles Philharmonic, São Paulo Symphony, and Talea Ensemble. His works have been performed by esperanza spalding, JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, with conductors including Peter Eötvös, Susanna Mälkki, Steven Schick, and Thomas Adès.
His compositions have been featured at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Aspen, Aldeburgh, Ars Musica, Bang on a Can, Berliner Festspiele, Darmstadt, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart, Miller Theatre, Philharmonie de Paris, Sala São Paulo, Teatro La Fenice, TimeSpans Festival, and others.
Lara’s accomplishments include a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist nomination for his Double Concerto and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship from Harvard University. He has received awards from Johns Hopkins University, Prêmio Concerto (São Paulo), New Jersey Council for the Arts, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Funarte, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, and the Staubach Prize (Darmstadt). He has also been commissioned by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, Chamber Music America, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and Fromm Music Foundation.
Currently, Felipe Lara serves as Associate Professor and Chair of the Composition Department at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He holds degrees from Berklee College of Music, Tufts University, and New York University (PhD).
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