[photos by Leon Norting Har]

Austin Oting Har is a US-based composer, writer, and performer with a background in music technology and ancient philosophy. Described as “blinding, dazzling” (Sydney Arts Guide) and as “both intellectually challenging and emotionally moving” (Amplified Magazine), his work utilizes ancient concepts, languages, and instruments, digital sound design and creative coding, bridging traditional Western and Eastern, experimental electronic, and contemporary classical music worlds. His technology-mediated composition and performance practice explores timbral, microtonal, and rhythmic materials, focusing on the interplay between semantic, organic, and algorithmic processes. Phonaesthetics informs his creative writing and translation, where the sound of words is as important as their meaning.

Austin is an Associate Artist of the Australian Music Centre, the national organization representing Australian art music and sonic art. His music has been released internationally on Neuma Records (US) and Possible Futures (Germany), commissioned by Dark Mofo (Australia), Berlin Atonal and MaerzMusik (Germany), published by BabelScores (France), and broadcast on modern classical and experimental electronic music programs. Awards include a Special Prize in the Ise-Shima International Composition Competition (Japan), the Carillon Society of Australia Composition Competition (Australia), the Create NSW Arts and Cultural Fund (NSW Government, Australia), funded residencies at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (US) and Atlantic Center for the Arts (US), and his work was also recently included in the best of 2024 list in Avant Music News (US). His collaborations extend globally, engaging with interaction designers, linguists, and cultural bearers across Australia, Europe, the US, and Japan in his work integrating live electronics into Greek tragedy, Japanese nō theatre, and renga poetry. His research is published in Context: Journal of Music Research (University of Melbourne), Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and in Leonardo (MIT Press). He has been invited to present at diverse conferences including the Australasian Computer Music Conference (Sydney/Melbourne), Audio Engineering Society convention (NYC), Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar Series (Sydney), Creative Leadership for Innovation and Change Seminar Series (Virgin Islands), and the Composer’s Colloquium (Berkeley). His poetry has been published in journals including Modern Haiku (US), Acorn (US), Presence (UK), and seashores (Ireland).

He earned his DMA in Composition and Music Technology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, MMus in Music Technology Innovation (summa cum laude) at Berklee College of Music, and MSc in Ancient Philosophy (with merit) at the University of Edinburgh. He received the Sydney Moss Scholarship via the University of Sydney and the Research Training Program stipend via the Australian Government. He taught at Sydney and Berklee, and was an editor for the Sydney Undergraduate Journal of Musicology which publishes research by the top honors students at Sydney. Born in Australia, he first played violin in orchestras then studied composition, music technology, and philosophy before moving to Hollywood to work as a project coordinator and audio engineer. He has also worked as an audio-visual technician in San Francisco and an audio engineer for technology-mediated concerts in the Virgin Islands.

Austin is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the University of the Virgin Islands and in Fall 2024, a Visiting Scholar-Composer at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at the University of California, Berkeley. He supports and develops initiatives for underserved youth in the Virgin Islands and California.

(September 2024)

Press

... more than just a musical release; it is an artistic manifesto that transcends the limits of human imagination. Har's unique approach to music, philosophy and technology fuses into a masterpiece that is both intellectually challenging and emotionally moving. With this EP [The World Between Worlds / Ataraxia], Har has created a new dimension in neoclassical music and set a benchmark by which future releases must be measured.

- Amplified Magazine

... there's an aspect about it that feels almost like it's alive and breathing and when it's over you feel as if you just watched an intense scene of a science fiction film… definitely outside the box… but it's done with a sort of heart and soul that breeds the Fantastical and this is something that I adore about the track because the fence has to go part of it happens in your imagination while you're listening to this. Check this record out with headphones so you can really just get sucked into everything and see how it affects you.

- Recording Artists Guild Digital Magazine