Joan La Barbara (born 1947)
Joan La Barbara is famous for her pioneering use of extended vocal techniques, both in her own compositions and music by other contemporary composers.
She was born in Philadelphia, and received her music education at Syracuse University, New York University, and the Tanglewood/Berkshire Music Center. According to her website, she also “gained compositional tools as an apprentice with the numerous composers with whom she has worked for over four decades.”
Joan La Barbara appears on the recordings of Steve Reich’s Drumming (1971) and Philip Glass’s North Star (1977). She has also worked with composers John Cage, Lou Harrison, Morton Subotnick, Morton Feldman, and Robert Ashley. Her early albums of her own music include Voice in the Original Instrument (1976) and Tapesongs (1978) in which she appeared on the cover wearing a fabulous gown made of recording tape:
The following video is Joan La Barbara’s 2016 composition “A Murmuration for Chibok” for treble choir with text by Vietnamese American poet and novelist Monique Truong, commissioned and performed by The Young People’s Chorus of New York City:
Chibok is the town in Nigeria where 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014; the composition captures both the initial gaiety of a normal school day, and a mournful promise to never forget.
Joan La Barbara’s recent composition ad astra… for cellist who sings was premiered online:
Afterwards, the composer speaks a bit about the composition.