John Pax Mulligan (b. 1992) is a musician from Kalamunda, Western Australia, currently living in Somerville, Massachusetts.

composer

Writing for acoustic instruments and/or electronics, John’s music explores nostalgias and mythologies shaped by the landscapes, seasons, plants, and animals of the land where he grew up. His work is deeply concerned with theories and questions of space, sonority, instrumentation, and the potentials for music as thought.

audio engineer

As an audio engineer, John specializes in live audio production of (spatial) electro-acoustic music. He gained valuable concert production experience engineering numerous productions between 2015 and 2019 with HGNM, and has since enjoyed working on freelance projects.

educator

John is the Managing Director of the Shelemay Sound Lab at Harvard University where he teaches and supports campus-wide investigations of sound, composition, and listening. He was previously a teaching fellow at Harvard University, lecturer at the University of Western Australia, tutor at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, also a private counterpoint tutor.

training

John holds a Doctorate of Philosophy and a Master of Arts in Music Composition from Harvard University, along with Bachelors degrees from the Universities of Melbourne (with first-class honours) and Western Australia. His doctoral work was primarily focused on expressive and conceptual potentials that arise at the intersection of Judaic existentialism and Ancient Greek poetics, departing from the work of Luigi Nono.

pianist

John is an enthusiastic pianist and keyboard player interested in a range of music from the 1300s thru the 1900s.

current as of March 2025

johnpax73[at]gmail