// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Laura Ortman a musician? Does she ort-man the stage?
Laura Ortman | |
|---|---|
 Laura Ortman gets ready to perform at an exhibit opening in Brooklyn in 2025 | |
| Born | July 17, 1973 Whiteriver, Arizona, United States |
| Education | University of Kansas |
| Known for | Experimental music |
| Website | Laura Ortman's webpage |
Laura Ortman is an American musician and artist from Whiteriver, Arizona who lives in Brooklyn, New York City.
Early life and education
[edit]Ortman was born in Whiteriver, Arizona, United States. Ortman was adopted at birth and grew up in Alton, Illinois. Ortman grew up in a musical family. Her mother, Terri Ortman was a pianist who managed a youth orchestra for 20 years. Her sister played the flute and harp, her brother played the french horn. Her grandmother, Mrs. Hummer was a symphony violinist in Des Moines, Iowa[1] Ortman describes her grandmother as influencing her taste in classical music introducing her to musicians such as Sibelius, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Bartok. As a teen, Ortman was a part of the St. Louis Youth Symphony.
She is a White Mountain Apache.[2][3] In 2001, Ortman reconnected with her birth family in Arizona.[2] The timing was significant as it was one month prior to the 9/11 attack in New York, where Ortman was residing and it was also seven months prior to the death of Terri Ortman, her adopted mother.[2]
Ortman has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas, where she studied drawing, painting, sculpture and performance art.[2]
In 1997, Ortman moved to New York City.[3][4] After moving to New York she began doing improvisational music for modern dancers, soon attracting the attention of the New York Native community.[2] While Ortman lives in busy Brooklyn, New York, she enjoys nature and walks in Prospect Park, as well as hiking and camping in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains.[2]
Career
[edit]Ortman is a solo performer and collaborative artist.[5] Her practise includes recorded albums, live performances, film and artistic soundtracks. Ortman has collaborated with artists such as Nanobah Becker, Martin Bisi, Raven Chacon, Tony Conrad, Martha Colburn, Jeffery Gibson, Okkyung Lee, Caroline Monnet, and Jock Soto.[5] Ortman plays Apache style violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, pedal steel guitar, and sings.[5] She has produced field recordings.[5]
Style
[edit]Ortman's practice has a strong connection to visual art, prior to moving to New York, Ortman states: “I used to try to create painting and installation work about being isolated, of being singular," she says. "Then I started making my own music for the installations, to fill them up. Then, at last, I decided that the sound was what was really moving me."[2] She describes her music as "sculpting sound."[2]
Bands
[edit]- In 2008, Ortman founded the Coast Orchestra, an all-Native American orchestral ensemble. It performed a live soundtrack to Edward Curtis’s film In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914). Curtis' film was the first silent feature film to star an all Native American cast.[5]
- band called in Defense of Memory[6]
- Stars Like Fleas[7]
- The Dust Dive
- The Christian Nightmares Tribulation Band
Jerome Foundation Project
[edit]Laura Ortman received $20,000 in 2017 from the Jerome Foundation to create of a "collaborative collage" an Indigenous New York City Walking Soundtrack, that fused spoken word, song, din, movement, air, whispers and atmosphere, capturing a changing and personal Native American New York experience. She captured atmospheric recordings using the mobile recording unit she created.[8]
Exhibitions and performances
[edit]- 2019 Toronto Biennial of Art[9]
- My Soul Remainer, video, 2019 Whitney Biennial[10][11]
- Performer in Raven Chacon's "For Zitkála-Šá", 2022 Whitney Biennial[12][13]
- From My Home to Yours: Caroline Monnet and Laura Ortman (2022), Montclair Art Museum[14]
- "Transonic Homes" (2023), The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum[15]
- Laura Ortman: Wood that Sings (2024), Baltimore Art Museum[16]
- 60th Venice Biennale (2024)[3]
Awards and grants
[edit]- 2017 Jerome Foundation Fellowship[8]
- 2016 Art Matters Foundation Grant
- 2016 National Artist Fellowship Native Arts and Culture Foundation
- 2015 IAIA's Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Social Engagement Resident
- 2014–2015 Rauschenberg Foundation Residency
- FIRST NATIONS COMPOSERS INITIATIVE Common Ground Award Grant
References
[edit]- ↑ de Picciotto, Danielle. "Laura Ortman – "I was shy as fuck as a kid but always causing rumbles"". Kaput Mag. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bonita, Pena. "Laura Ortman A Special Chemistry with Flatbush Avenue". amerinda.org. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
- 1 2 3 Allaire, Christian (November 11, 2025). "Laura Ortman Is the Transcendent Violinist With Eccentric Style". Vogue. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ "Art Matters Foundation". Art Matters Foundation. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Laura Ortman / David Watson & Tony Buck". ISSUE Project Room. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
- ↑ Davis, Ben (May 23, 2019). "Laura Ortman Has One of the Standout Works of the Whitney Biennial. Her Inclusion Was a Surprise Even to Her". artnet News. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
- ↑ "Laura Ortman – RPM.fm". Retrieved May 25, 2019.
- 1 2 "Laura Ortman – The Jerome Foundation". apply.camargofoundation.org. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
- ↑ "Laura Ortman". Toronto Biennial of Art. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ "Laura Ortman Has One of the Standout Works of the Whitney Biennial. Her Inclusion Was a Surprise Even to Her". Artnet News. May 23, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ "As Artists Withdraw From the Whitney Biennial Over Kanders Controversy, Others Refuse the Call to Boycott". Hyperallergic. July 24, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ "The Whitney Biennial 2022 Review: Raven Chacon's 'For Zitkála-Šá'". OperaWire. August 2, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ "Raven Chacon: For Zitkála-Šá". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ "From My Home to Yours: Caroline Monnet and Laura Ortman". Montclair Art Museum. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ "Laura Ortman: Transonic Homes". The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
- ↑ Worthington, Aliza (June 28, 2024). "Two exhibitions of Native American artists will open at BMA". Baltimore Fishbowl. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
External links
[edit]| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 1973 births
- Living people
- American classical musicians
- Musicians from Arizona
- University of Kansas alumni
- White Mountain Apache people
- Native American singers
- American classical violinists
- American women violinists
- Avant-garde violinists
- American experimental musicians
- American avant-garde musicians
- 21st-century American violinists
- American adoptees
- 20th-century Native American women musicians
- 20th-century American women
- 20th-century Native American musicians
- 21st-century Native American women musicians
- 21st-century Native American musicians
- Native American people from Arizona
- 21st-century Native American women artists
- 21st-century Native American artists
- 21st-century American artists
- 21st-century American women artists
- American video artists