Laura Ortman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Laura Ortman
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Laura Ortman gets ready to perform at an exhibit opening in Brooklyn in 2025
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| Born | July 17, 1973 Whiteriver, Arizona, United States
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| Education | University of Kansas |
| Known for | Experimental music |
Laura Ortman is an American musician and artist. She was born in Whiteriver, Arizona, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York City. Laura is known for blending music with fine art. Her work has even been shown in major art exhibits like the Whitney Biennial.
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Laura Ortman's Early Life and Learning
Laura Ortman was born in Whiteriver, Arizona, in the United States. She was adopted as a baby and grew up in Alton, Illinois. Laura came from a very musical family. Her adopted mother, Terri Ortman, was a pianist. She also managed a youth orchestra for 20 years.
Laura's sister played the flute and harp. Her brother played the french horn. Her grandmother, Mrs. Hummer, was a symphony violinist in Des Moines, Iowa. Laura says her grandmother helped her love classical music. She introduced her to famous composers like Sibelius, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Bartok. As a teenager, Laura played in the St. Louis Youth Symphony.
Connecting with Her Heritage
Laura is a member of the White Mountain Apache tribe. In 2001, she reconnected with her birth family in Arizona. This happened just one month before the 9/11 attacks in New York, where Laura was living. It was also seven months before her adopted mother, Terri Ortman, passed away.
Her College Education
Laura earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Kansas. There, she studied drawing, painting, sculpture, and performance art.
In 1997, Laura moved to New York City. She started creating improvised music for modern dancers. Soon, the Native American community in New York noticed her talent. Even though Laura lives in busy Brooklyn, she loves nature. She enjoys walks in Prospect Park. She also likes hiking and camping in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.
Laura Ortman's Music Career
Laura Ortman performs alone and also works with other artists. Her work includes making albums, performing live, creating film scores, and artistic soundtracks. She has worked with many artists, including Nanobah Becker, Martin Bisi, and Raven Chacon.
Laura plays many instruments. These include the Apache-style violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and pedal steel guitar. She also sings. She has even made special "field recordings," which are sounds captured from real places.
Her Unique Music Style
Laura Ortman's music is strongly connected to visual art. Before moving to New York, she tried to make paintings and installation art about feeling alone. She then started making her own music for these art pieces. She realized that the sound was what truly moved her. Laura describes her music as "sculpting sound."
Music Groups and Bands
Laura has been part of several interesting music groups:
- In 2008, Laura started the Coast Orchestra. This group is made up of all Native American musicians. They performed live music for Edward Curtis’s film In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914). This was the first silent movie to star an all-Native American cast.
- She was also in a band called In Defense of Memory.
- Another group she played with was Stars Like Fleas.
- Laura was part of The Dust Dive.
- She also played in The Christian Nightmares Tribulation Band.
Major Performances and Shows
Laura Ortman has performed at many important places and events:
- The 2019 Whitney Biennial
- The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
- The Whitney Museum of American Art
- The National Museum of the American Indian
- The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- MoMA P.S. 1
- The Centre Pompidou in Paris
- The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
- SF MoMA
- The Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Indigenous New York City Walking Soundtrack
In 2017, Laura Ortman received a grant from the Jerome Foundation. She used $20,000 to create a special project. It was called an "Indigenous New York City Walking Soundtrack." This project combined spoken words, songs, sounds, movement, and whispers. It aimed to capture a changing and personal Native American experience in New York City. Laura used a special mobile recording unit she built to capture these sounds.
Awards and Grants
Laura Ortman has received several awards and grants for her work:
- 2017 Jerome Foundation Fellowship
- 2016 Art Matters Foundation Grant
- 2016 National Artist Fellowship from the 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
