Photographs

Curriculum Vitae

Education

2021, DMA in Composition and Music Technology, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of Sydney
2016, MSc in Ancient Philosophy (with Merit), the University of Edinburgh
2014, MMus in Music Technology Innovation (Summa Cum Laude), Berklee College of Music
2013, BMusicStudies in Composition, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
2013, BA in Philosophy, the University of Sydney

Doctoral and Master’s Dissertations

'The Ghost: Opera – An Intersection of Greek Tragedy, Electroacoustic, and Spectral Music', Composition and Music Technology, University of Sydney
'The Cognition of True Pleasure in Plato’s Ontology of Perception', Ancient Philosophy, University of Edinburgh
'FLO: iOS Application for Audio to MIDI Conversion', Music Technology Innovation, Berklee College of Music

Scholarships

2020, Sydney Moss Scholarship, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
2017-2020, Research Training Program, Australian Government
2018, Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, Sydney University
2017, Eleanor Dunn Equity Scholarship, Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Grants

2020, Create NSW Arts and Cultural Fund, NSW Government
2019, Create NSW Small Projects Grant, NSW Government

Residencies

2023, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, USA
2023, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Virginia, USA
2022, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska, USA
2013, PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, Sydney, AUS

Commissions

2021, 'The Ghost Trilogy: Act I - Invocation' (90:00), The Long Now at MaerzMusik, Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, Germany
2020, 'The Ghost Trilogy: Act I - Invocation' (90:00), Berlin Atonal, Berlin, Germany
2018, 'Omelas' (30:00), MONA Dark Mofo festival, Hobart, AUS

Productions and Sound Installations

2021, Multimedia production with the ‘Mind at Work’ light sculpture, created by Oliver Bown and Kurt Mikolajczyk, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, AUS
2017, Electroacoustic piece for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music postgraduate exhibition, City Recital Hall, Sydney, AUS
2014, Sound installation for the Berklee College of Music postgraduate exhibition, City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain

Publications

Research
2023, forthcoming article with Kurt Mikolajczyk, Oliver Bown, and Sam Ferguson entitled 'Mimetic Possibilities: Co-Designing Multimedia Works for Opera'
Forthcoming article with Barnaby Brown entitled ‘Composing for Aulos'
Forthcoming article with Barnaby Brown entitled ‘Visualizing Vibrato’
2021, 'The Ghost: Opera – An Intersection of Greek Tragedy, Electroacoustic, and Spectral Music', Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney, Sydney Digital Theses
2020, (Edited) Isobel Savulescu, 'How does Robert Glasper and Miles Davis’ Album Everything’s Beautiful (2016) Move the Legacy of Jazz Rap Forward?' The University of Sydney: Sydney Undergraduate Journal of Musicology
2019, 'Music as a Discourse’ / ‘Music as a State of Sound’: An Interpretation of Gérard Grisey’s Conceptual Framework for Spectral Musical Composition, The University of Melbourne, Context: Journal of Music Research

Pedagogy/Book
2020, HSC English Advanced Module C: 'The Craft of Writing', Achievers Academy Publications: HSC Achiever’s Study Notes

Poetry
2022, Haiku in Action, Nick Virgilio Haiku Association, USA

Invited Presentations

2022, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, UK, and Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland (via Barnaby Brown’s presentation of research from 'Composing for Aulos')
2020, 'Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar Series', the Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Sydney, AUS
2018, ‘Postgraduate Music Research Conference: Compositional Process and Techniques’, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Heinze Room, Melbourne, AUS
2017, ‘Best Practice in Artistic Research in Music Symposium’, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Main Foyer, Sydney, AUS

Awards and Nominations

2013, Finalist, APRA Professional Development Award – Contemporary Music
2011, Young Composer Award, for 'Battle Monologue' (3:00), premiered by Symphony Central Coast and the Central Coast Philharmonia Choir, conducted by Christopher Bearman OAM
2011, 3rd Place for 'The Devil's Merry-Go-Round' (5:30), the Carillon Society of Australia Composition Contest, performed on the National Carillon in Canberra and the University of Sydney War Memorial Carillon
2010, Finalist in the Student Composer Prize, Sydney Conservatorium of Music 101, for 'Confessions of an Obsessive Neurotic' (6:30), piano, oboe, alto saxophone, acoustic guitar (amplified), violin, viola, and cello

Biography

[Short: ~150 words, current to 05/11/2022]

Austin Oting Har is a composer, sound designer, and librettist who engages creatively with technology and philosophy. His work utilizes ancient languages, concepts, and instruments, digital sound design and creative coding, bridging the experimental electronic and contemporary classical music worlds. The manipulation of timbral and microtonal material from these worlds, with attention to the transition and interplay between semantic and organic structures, lies at the heart of his idiosyncratic ‘spectral attitude’. Born in Australia, Austin first played violin in orchestras, then studied composition, music technology, and philosophy, creating a variety of music before moving to Hollywood to work as a project coordinator. He holds a DMA in Composition and Music Technology from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, MMus in Music Technology Innovation from Berklee College of Music, and MSc in Ancient Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. His debut opera showcases the historical sound of Aeschylean tragedy within a contemporary atmosphere, performed by the aulete Barnaby Brown and a Chorus in Attic and Doric Greek.

[Long: ~1,000 words, current to 05/11/2022]

Austin Oting Har is a composer, sound designer, and librettist who engages creatively with technology and philosophy. His work utilizes ancient languages, concepts, and instruments, digital sound design and creative coding, bridging the experimental electronic and contemporary classical music worlds with sensitivity to the finest nuances of timbre, stress, and microtonality. His debut opera showcases the historical sound of Aeschylean tragedy within a contemporary atmosphere, performed by the leading aulete Barnaby Brown and a Chorus in Attic and Doric Greek.

Growing up in a small township in northeast NSW, Australia, Austin began making music in his mid-teens after his first trip to Hong Kong, during which he asked his parents what they listened to as teenagers. Upon hearing their Beatles tape collection, and inquiring about what the locals were listening to (Jay Chou), he began making pop, rock, electronic, and orchestral music on Sibelius and Pro Tools. By then, he had completed the AMEB grades in classical violin performance and musicianship but not considered music as a vocation. Whilst composing, he began playing violin in youth orchestras and ensembles at the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music, Gosford High school, and in the orchestra pit at Laycock Street Theatre in musicals directed by Isaac Hayward. He also completed the HSC Distinction Course in Philosophy at the University of New England during this time. The balance of music and philosophy took him out of his shell and became the foundation for experiencing eudaimonia as an ongoing activity.

In 2010, he moved to Sydney to work as a waiter and cinema staff and start bachelor’s degrees in composition and philosophy at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Sydney. Dividing his time equally between the two campuses, he performed as a singer-songwriter and violinist around Sydney whilst composing concert music that was informed by what he was writing for essays on metaphysics, moral psychology, and psychoanalysis. He received awards and nominations for his orchestral, ensemble, and solo instrumental compositions, and collaborated with the choreographer Emiline Forster and director Joe Chan for theater productions at PACT Center for Emerging Artists and Australasian Arts and Stageworks. After placing 3rd in the Carillon Society of Australia composition contest, hearing performances of his work on the National Carillon in Canberra and the University of Sydney War Memorial Carillon and exploring traditional Chinese music, including learning the erhu, he developed an interest in composing for rare and traditional instruments. At the Conservatorium, his supervisor Paul Stanhope advised him to pursue the 20th century art music movement ‘spectral music’ after reviewing his electronic composition ‘Spectral Synesthesia’, something he would do 10 years later during his doctoral work. Composing this electronic spectral piece, alongside his exploration of rare and traditional instruments, would spark Austin’s lifelong interest in digital sound design for synthesizers and percussion informed by his sensitivity to the finest nuances of timbre, stress, and microtonal pitch material after completing the 8 AMEB grades in classical violin performance.

Austin moved to Valencia, Spain in 2013 to begin a Master’s degree in music technology innovation at Berklee College of Music where he studied with Ben Houge and worked as a graduate assistant in the music technology lab. Prior to moving, he was also accepted to the Master’s degree in philosophy at the University of Sydney to study bioethics. At Berklee, he developed a working prototype for an iOS application for audio to MIDI conversion using the Objective C, MAX MSP, and Pure Data programming languages. He graduated summa cum laude in 2014, then relocated to Hollywood to work as a project coordinator for the production studio Smash Haus Music Group. He managed a variety of composers and producers of pop, rock, hip hop, and orchestral music for clients in film, radio, and education, overseeing the delivery of hundreds of files per week. A highlight for him was recording an interview with Verdine White, the bass guitarist of Earth, Wind and Fire, one of his favorite bands. On weekends, he played violin in rock bands whilst maintaining his keen interest in composition and sound design, composing for short films and creating experimental electronic music.

In 2015, Austin left Hollywood after being invited to Berlin Atonal as a VIP guest. In restoring his balance of music and philosophy, he undertook a Master’s degree in ancient philosophy at the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Inna Kupreeva, graduating with merit with a dissertation on Plato’s ontology whilst working on his debut EP. The fallout from surgery derailed its completion and his pre-doctoral research at Leuven University, causing burnout and his return to Australia.

Austin was welcomed back to his alma maters in 2017 to undertake a Doctor of Musical Arts; funded by the Australian Government, he divided his time equally again between the two campuses whilst tutoring HSC English. After one year composing a concerto and writing a novel, Michael Smetanin advised him to redirect his inspiration into an opera, then later became his composition supervisor. At the Conservatorium, he composed, researched, and taught; at the University, he took Ancient Greek classes for two years before starting the translation process for his libretto, first written by himself in English, into the poetic style of Attic tragedy with the help of Grant Kynaston. Outside of academia, he performed as Omelas at the Dark Mofo Festival in Tasmania as part of the Berlin Atonal curated program ‘Laterne’. Following this appearance, his music received remixes by the veteran experimental electronic artists Container and Jan Jelinek from the US and Germany. His research on experimental electronic and spectral music was published in ‘Context: Journal of Music Research’ by the University of Melbourne, and through his ancient philosophy supervisor, Rick Benitez, he became involved in the Aulos Revival initiated by scholars from Oxford and Cambridge University, resulting in his fruitful collaboration with the leading aulete and ethnomusicologist, Barnaby Brown. With Barnaby, Austin pioneered new techniques for the Pydna Aulos, a professional aulos from Classical antiquity reconstructed from finds inside the grave of an aulete that archeologists dated to ~500 BCE, and produced their first score notations that required the use of Ancient Greek music symbols. He was conferred the doctorate in 2021.

In recent years, Austin has received commissions from the ‘Long Now’ (the closing event of MaezrMusik), Berlin Atonal, the Sydney Moss Scholarship, and the Create NSW Arts and Cultural Fund. In 2022, he was awarded a residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for Arts in Nebraska, USA to work on an alternate presentation for the opera after repeated cancellations of its site-specific premiere in Kraftwerk Berlin.

He currently divides his time between Australia and the USA.