Join us on Thursday, April 18, at 6:00 PM for a concert by guitarist Tashi Dorji and percussionist Susie Ibarra, who will perform an experimental duet conceived for this event as a musical bardo exploration.

The event is free and open to the public.

About the Artists

Susie Ibarra is a composer and percussionist who creates live and immersive music that explores rhythm, indigenous practices and interaction with cities and the natural world. Her work includes the recording Perception (2017); Musical Water Routes in the Medina of Fez (2016), a music and river route mobile app; Mirrors and Water, a sonic installation commissioned for Ai Wei Wei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Signs at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming (2015); Circadian Rhythms (2013), commissioned for Earth Day at Rensselaer RPI EMPAC; and others.

She has performed with Pauline Oliveros, NEA heritage artist Danongan Kalanduyan, John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Douglas, Tania Léon, Ikue Mori, Yusef Komunyakaa, Yuka Honda, Sylvie Courvoisier, Trisha Brown, Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot, Jennifer Choi, Craig Taborn, Mali singer songwriter Mamadou Kelley and Hamdcha Sufi Group of Fez, Morocco. She teaches at Bennington College.

Tashi Dorji grew up in Bhutan and has lived in Asheville, North Carolina, since 2000. Along the way, Dorji developed a playing style unbound by tradition, yet with a direct line to intuitive artistry. His recordings feature improvisations that spasmodically grow along tangential, surprising paths. All references break loose during a composition, as Dorji keys into his own inner world. His compositions drag the listener into a labyrinth of warbling tones, where each sound seems to jump out and replace the eerie silence that would otherwise occupy the atmosphere. The textures remain sustained in the reverberation as the vibration of the strings dwindle and ascend.

After a handful of releases on various labels since 2009, Dorji presented his debut LP on Hermit Hut, the label created by Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) in 2014. And since Tashi has released music both as a soloist, and with duo projects, notably with percussionist Tyler Damon and MANAS (w/ Thom Nguyen) on labels like Bathetic Records, Cabin Floor Esoterica, Blue Tapes, Marmara Records, Feeding Tubes, UNROCK, VDSQ, MIE, Ultra Violet Light, Family Vineyard and Astral Spirits.

Bardo Now Events

This event is the third in a three-night series called Bardo Now, held in conjunction with the exhibition The Second Buddha: Master of Time.

• Tuesday, April 16, 6:00 PM: Donald S. Lopez, Jr. and George Saunders on Lincoln in the Bardo

• Wednesday, April 17, 6:00 PM: Dunkerley Dialogue with Laurie Anderson and Benjamin Bogin

• Thursday, April 18, 6:00 PM: Susie Ibarra and Tashi Dorji Duet

Programming for The Second Buddha was coordinated by Associate Professor of Asian Studies Benjamin Bogin through the Skidmore Faculty Scholar Residency, which is co-sponsored by the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning and the Office of the Dean of Special Programs; and the Tang Teaching Museum.