4 pm | SUSIE IBARRA SOLO
Susie Ibarra is a Filipinx-American composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Her sound has been described as “a sound like no other’s, incorporating the unique percussion and musical approach of her Filipino heritage with her flowing jazz drumset style” (Modern Drummer Magazine) and her compositions are sometimes described as “calling up the movements of the human body; elsewhere it’s a landscape vanishing in the last light, or the path a waterway might trace” (New York Times).
Susie Ibarra will perform pieces from her upcoming new solo project, Forest Birds, which draws upon her research and field recordings of rhythms and songs of birds across continents and changing migration patterns. Some of these forest birds are in high altitude mountains with bamboo, and others nestled in migrating trees next to seashores, while some are familiar friends in a backyard.
Recent commissions include Kronos String Quartet’s 50 for the Future Project Pulsation, PRISM Saxophone Quartet + Percussion’s Procession Along the Aciga Tree, Talking Gong trio with pianist Alex Peh and flutist Claire Chase, film score When the Storm Fades directed by Sean Devlin, and a multimedia game piece Fragility: An Exploration of Polyrhythms for Asia Society. Ibarra actively composes and performs music as a soloist, collaborator, with and for ensembles that are instrumental, vocal and interdisciplinary.for maintaining the freshness of improvisation.
She is a recipient of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Sky Islands, the Foundation For Contemporary Arts Award in Music/ Sound (2022), a National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship (2020); United States Artists Fellowship in Music (2019); the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship (2018); and a TED Senior Fellowship (2014).
Photo © Troi Santos
5 pm | CLUTTERTONES PLAY IBARRA & MORE
Lina Allemano trumpet
Rob Clutton bass, composition
Ryan Driver human voice, analogue synth, piano
Tim Posgate banjo, guitar
Bassist Rob Clutton’s chamber jazz quartet that exquisitely synthesizes his diverse interests – song, long-form composition, lyricism, extended improvisation, extreme textures, and more – through his seasoned bandmates. Cluttertones music reveals itself slowly, making countless subtle, mysterious insinuations in place of bold declarations. Disarmingly gorgeous melodies emerge from the fog of thorny group playing, often evoking the simplicity of folk music.
The group has been playing together for over a decade, and each of the members have long associations with the others in various projects. This music plays at the edges between known/unknown, concrete/abstract, solo/group, expression/process. Drawing from a broad range of experience—which includes jazz, European classical music, electronica, improvisation, folk, singer-songwriter, experimental—the Cluttertones play what some have called “otherworldly chamber music.
Photo © Jeff Tessier
6:00 pm | SUSIE IBARRA NATURE SOUND WALK
Master percussionist, sound artist, composer, nature lover, and explorer Susie Ibarra will guide us on our first nature sound walk. Ibarra will integrate her performance skills and birdsong activity, and her knowledge thereof, into this special experience. We will depart as a group from St. Cuthbert’s right after the Cluttertones performance and meet at the stunning Cootes Paradise (3 minute drive), to explore flora, fauna, and nature sounds revealed, interpreted and absorbed with Ibarra and crew.
Her book Rhythm in Nature: An Ecology of Rhythm was released in March, 2024, which accompanies her course and mentorship program teaching concepts of rhythm, math equations, field recording and sound ecology in natural and built environments.
Recent honours include 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition 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.
Photo © Tony Cenicola
Saturday Late Afternoon Ticket:
$33 advance / $40 door (1 event, 2 sets + nature walk)
Saturday Pass:
$50 advance / $60 door (4:00 + 8:30 pm, 2 events/5 acts)
Festival Weekend Pass:
$100 (7 ticketed events, 16 acts, up to $235 value)
Discounted Advance Tickets & Passes:
E-transfer (no fee) tix@zulapresents.org or EVENTBRITE (+fee)
Students, Seniors, Underwaged at the Door (cash/e-transfer):
$20/event, $30 day passes, $80 festival pass, in person w/ID
No one will be refused admission for lack of funds
In our 12th year of operation, as Zula Presents Something Else!, we are most grateful to Canada Council for the Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage, and The City of Hamilton for their financial support to make these festival events possible. We would also like to acknowledge and thank our partners Hamilton Public Library and Open Streets for their kind support and enthusiasm. As well, much gratitude goes to our diligent media partners Musicworks, Music Buddy, and CFMU.