John Pax Mulligan (b. 1992) is an electro-acoustic composer and audio engineer from Kalamunda, Western Australia, currently residing in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the Senior Media Advisor / Technician for the Shelemay Sound Media Lab at Harvard University.

composer

John’s music draw inspiration from the landscapes, seasons, plants, and animals of the bush where he grew up, and often evokes a longing for a mythology or or poetics of this experience. His compositions have been performed by leading ensembles and soloists in Adelaide, Bludenz, Boston, Freiburg, London, Melbourne, Paris, Perth, Rieti, San Diego, Singapore, and Sydney. Others have described his music as "of our time, peaceful, with a sense of anxiety and poignancy”, one in which "the sound phenomenon [is made] emotionally reverberant without any manipulation."

audio engineer

As an audio engineer, John specializes in live audio production of electro-acoustic music. He gained valuable concert production experience with HGNM, engineering numerous complex electro-acoustic productions between 2015 and 2019 with colleagues. Since then, John has worked as a freelance engineer with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien and with groups like the AdLib Collective in addition to producing his own works.

educator

In his current position at Harvard University, he regularly organizes workshops on various sound-based topics, featuring presentations by international guests, staff, and faculty of the University, and occasionally presenting himself. He has previous experience as a teaching fellow at Harvard University (2017-19), lecturer at the University of Western Australia (2021), tutor at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2021), as well as a private counterpoint tutor.

academic

John holds a Doctorate of Philosophy and a Master of Arts in Music Composition from Harvard University, along with Bachelor's degrees from the Universities of Melbourne (with 1st class honours) and Western Australia. His doctoral thesis at Harvard examined expressive and conceptual potentials which arise from the convergence of Judaic existentialism and Ancient Greek poetics. He has been fortunate to discuss his work with composers such as Pierluigi Billone, Brenton Broadstock, Chaya Czernowin, Peter Edwards, Joshua Fineberg, Stuart Greenbaum, Elliott Gyger, James Ledger, Giorgio Nietti, Ruben Seroussi, Paul Stanhope, Chris Tonkin, Ming Tsao, and Hans Tutschku.

pianist

John is an enthusiastic pianist currently interested in Chopin and Bach.

current as of the 22nd of April, 2023

johnpax73[at]gmail