Biography

Moon Young HA has spent the past years working to redefine the new music scene in New York. As the founder and director of ensemble mise-en, Moon curates and conducts some of the most unexpected, perplexing, and prominent concerts of contemporary classical music in the city today. As a composer, Moon’s works are heard worldwide, commissioned by major ensembles and chamber orchestras, and featured in experimental collaborations with the musicians in New York-based ensemble mise-en.

Moon’s compositional output is as eclectic as the concerts he curates. Much of his work combines acoustic instruments with electronics, video, and choreography, reflecting influences from western, non-western, jazz, and pop idioms. The New York Times called his music “a wayward litany of pops, shivers and shrieks, by turns agitated and enervated.” But his work also emphasizes organic development, narrative structure, and close research into spectral combinations, creating audible storylines that delight the senses and spur the imagination. In recent seasons, Moon’s works have been premiered by groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Empyrean Ensemble, Chatham Baroque, Momenta Quartet and many others. Moon has been resident composer at I-Park, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Omi International Arts Center, and was guest composer at the Intimacy of Creativity Project at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Moon lives and works in New York City. He received degrees (B.M. 2009, M.M. 2010) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his Ph.D. (2019) from New York University.