Resident composer Patrick Harlin comes to the 2012 Mizzou New Music Summer Festival from Ann Arbor, where he currently is working toward a doctoral degree in music composition from the University of Michigan.

Born in Salt Lake City and raised in Seattle, Harlin (pictured) has been composing and playing piano since age 8. He earned his undergraduate degree at Western Washington University, where he received the Ford Hill Piano Scholarship, the Western Washington Piano Department scholarship, and many other awards. Harlin then moved to Ann Arbor to study for his Master’s degree, which he completed last year.

Though classically trained, Harlin considers his love of jazz, electronic and modern music to be integral to his output as a composer. He also has a keen interest in acoustic ecology – the effect sound has on the environment – which has led to works that reflect natural processes and landscapes, formally and sonically.  He also recently guest lectured on acoustic ecology and the natural world at the University of Iowa.

In addition to his work as a composer and pianist, Harlin taught advanced aural skills to second year music majors at WWU, and has worked as a copyist and/or engraver for Samuel Adler, Michael Daugherty and Roger Briggs, including the engraving the piano reduction of Daugherty’s recent Grammy Award winning composition Deus ex Machina. He also maintains a private studio in Ann Arbor where he teaches music composition and piano to students of all ages and experience levels.

Also in Ann Arbor, Harlin recently won the Lightworks Film Festival award for best original score, and was featured in June on the news site AnnArbor.com. In the embedded players below, you can hear some samples of Patrick Harlin’s music, and there’s more audio of his work available on his SoundCloud page.

Patrick Harlin’s Landscapes, Movement Two

Harlin performs the third part of his piece Three American Sketches in May 2008 at Western Washington University.