Austin Oting Har : Associate Artist
Austin Oting Har is a US-based composer, writer, and academic
with a background in music technology and ancient philosophy. His
work utilises ancient languages, concepts, and instruments,
digital sound design and creative coding, bridging the
experimental electronic and contemporary classical music worlds.
Phonaesthetics informs his creative writing and translation,
where the sound of selected words is as important as their
meaning.
Austin's music has been released on Neuma Records (US) and
Possible Futures (Germany), published by BabelScores (France),
and commissioned by Dark Mofo (Australia), Berlin Atonal and
MaerzMusik (Germany). His poetry appears in the Modern Haiku
(US), Acorn (US), and Presence (UK) journals. His research
involves integrating live computer tools into traditional
interdisciplinary art forms, specifically Greek tragedy and
Japanese Noh theatre. He has been invited to present at the Audio
Engineering Society Convention (NYC), Classics and Ancient
History Research Seminar Series (Sydney), and Composer's
Colloquium (Berkeley). He collaborates with interaction
designers, linguists, and cultural bearers from Australia,
Europe, and Japan, and practices Zen Buddhism (Ordinary Mind
sangha) engaging with the backdrop of Noh and haiku.
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 and audio engineer. He was also an audio-visual
technician in San Francisco. He holds a DMA in Composition and
Music Technology from Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University
of Sydney, MMus in Music Technology Innovation (Summa Cum Laude)
from Berklee College of Music, and MSc in Ancient Philosophy
(with Merit) on Plato's ontology of perception from Edinburgh
University. He received the Australian Government's Research
Training Program (RTP) stipend and the Sydney Moss Scholarship.
He wrote the music and libretto, in ancient Greek and the style
of Aeschylean tragedy, for his debut opera, The Ghost, receiving
the Create NSW Arts and Cultural Fund. After two years of
Covid-cancelled premieres in Berlin, he undertook an alternate
presentation supported by funded residencies at Atlantic Center
for the Arts (Florida) and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the
Arts (Nebraska).
Since 2023, Austin has been Assistant Professor of Music at the
University of the Virgin Islands, and in Fall 2024 he will be a
Visiting Scholar-Composer at the Center for New Music and Audio
Technologies (CNMAT) at the University of California, Berkeley.
He established UVI's electronic music studio and supports
underserved youth initiatives in the Virgin Islands and
California.
Biography provided by the composer
Selected Commissions
| Work | Commission Details | |
|---|---|---|
| The Myth of Òrron and Òros : for Pydna aulos, Rustic aulos, and Greek chorus (2022) | Commissioned by Create NSW. |