FIlipino American Susie Ibarra wins the Pulitzer for Music and Honestly, It’s About Time

May 12, 2025

When Susie Ibarra’s name dropped as the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Music, we clutched our chests, screamed a little, and instantly pressed play on her piece Sky Islands. And if you haven’t heard it yet, run, don’t walk.

Her win didn’t just break a barrier, it rewrote what the stage sounds like for all of us. Check it out:

Susie Ibarra, a boundary-breaking Filipina American composer and percussionist, just made history. Sky Islands, her haunting and expansive tribute to the Philippine mountain rainforests, snagged one of the most prestigious honors in classical music. This is the first time a Filipina American has ever won a Pulitzer for Music.

Her win doesn’t just make history. It shifts the frequency of who gets heard and what stories get told.

What makes Sky Islands so powerful isn’t just its musicality (though, yes, it slaps in the most soul-stirring way). It’s that it’s rooted in us — in the landscapes of Luzon, in kulintang rhythms and bamboo percussion, in melodies that feel both ancient and futuristic. It’s giving ancestral memory meets avant-garde realness.

The piece premiered at the Asia Society in New York last summer, and it’s been turning heads ever since. The Pulitzer jury said Ibarra’s work "challenges the notion of the compositional voice," and we’d argue that’s exactly what more of classical music needs. Voices like Ibarra’s, rooted in community, culture, and craft.

Photo Credit: Susie Ibarra

But Ibarra isn’t just composing for concert halls. She’s been in these intergenerational streets, co-founding Song of the Bird King, a platform that documents, preserves, and collaborates with indigenous communities through music and environmental storytelling. Her work doesn’t just sound good, it means something. It pulses with ecology, identity, and resistance.

For those of us in the diaspora — Filipino Americans, creatives, musicians, culture-shapers, this moment feels like a long-overdue spotlight. Ibarra isn’t just winning awards. She’s opening doors. She’s proof that the rhythms we grew up with, the stories our lolas told, and the sounds of our motherland are not only worthy of global stages, they belong there.

So yes, let’s celebrate Susie. Blast Sky Islands. Send it to your tita who still thinks music isn’t a “real career.” Share it with your group chat. And most importantly, take this as your sign. Our stories are valid. Our art is vital. And this moment is only the beginning.

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