Austin Oting Har

Austin Oting Har (1992-) 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 (Summa Cum Laude) from Berklee College of Music, and MSc in Ancient Philosophy (with Merit) 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. In recent years, Austin has received commissions from the 'Long Now' (the closing event of MaerzMusik), Berlin Atonal, Dark Mofo, the Sydney Moss Scholarship, and the Create NSW Arts and Cultural Fund. He has also been awarded residencies at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for Arts in Nebraska, USA, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) in Amherst, Virginia, USA, and Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, USA, to work on an alternate presentation for the opera after repeated cancellations of its site-specific premiere in Kraftwerk Berlin, in Berlin, Germany, throughout 2020 and 2021.