Paul A. Oehlers
Composer · Associate Professor of Audio Technology
"Music for the screen and the loudspeaker, from film scores to electroacoustic composition."
Paul A. Oehlers is an American composer and associate professor of audio technology at American University in Washington, DC. He is most recognized for his "extraordinarily evocative" film scores, as Variety described them. Films incorporating his music have won the Grand Jury prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival, the Atlanta International Film Festival and the Indiefest Film Festival, and they have screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and dozens of festivals in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
His electronic and concert music has been performed in the United States, Canada, England, Cuba, Brazil, Germany, Italy, France, Korea and South Africa. Performances include the national conferences of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), the International Computer Music Conference, the Gamper New Music Festival, the Seoul International Electro-acoustic Music Festival, the Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung in Darmstadt, Germany, the VII Annual Brazilian Electronic Music Festival and the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, as well as a 1987 command performance for former United States President Ronald Reagan. He was the first composer ever commissioned by the Nature Conservancy to write a concert composition about prairie conservation.
He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts and a Master of Music in music composition from the University of Illinois, a Master of Arts in Teaching (music education) from the University of the Arts, and a Bachelor of Music in music composition from the University of the Arts. He was named the 2006 Margaret Lee Crofts Fellow by the MacDowell Colony, and in 2000 he received second place in the SEAMUS/ASCAP Awards.
He has taught at American University since 2004, and received the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Award for Exceptional Impact in 2023. His teaching covers the fundamentals of audio technology, advanced studies in film scoring, and the audio technology seminar. He is a member of BMI (since 1992), SEAMUS (since 1996) and the International Computer Music Association (since 1998).
Photo by Joshua Taback
Highlights
Phantomnesis selected artist, Cambiata Arts; Featured in the compilation Phantomnesis: Residues and Recalls
Film scores called "extraordinarily evocative" by Variety
Grand Jury Prize, Atlanta International Film Festival (2005), and Golden Starfish, Hamptons International Film Festival (2004), for the score of Most High
Margaret Lee Crofts Fellow, MacDowell Colony (2006)
Second place, SEAMUS/ASCAP Awards (2000)
First composer commissioned by the Nature Conservancy to write a concert composition about prairie conservation
Works performed at SEAMUS conferences, the International Computer Music Conference, the Seoul International Electro-acoustic Music Festival and in Darmstadt
American University College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Award for Exceptional Impact (2023)
Associate Professor of Audio Technology, American University
Selected works
Automaton — electroacoustic. An homage to unending Rube Goldberg devices. Selected for Phantomnesis; also presented at Forum Wallis 2024 in Goms, Switzerland, and at the REF Resilience Festival 2024 in Foggia, Italy.
Pseudechis (2023) — for electronic playback.
Themis (2023) — for English horn and electronic playback.
Red Coyote (2022) — for electronic playback.
Pterois (2020) — for electronic playback. Released on Aakati (Nous Records, 2020).
Tidal (2020) — for electronic playback. Released on Sound Silence Thought (2020).
Marsyas (2018) — for oboe and electronic playback.
Flux Hammer (2017) — for electronic playback. Made from physically altered piano strings, prepared acoustically and then shaped by convolution, resonant filtering and granular synthesis. Presented in an eight-channel system at the Hyper-Objects: Acousmatic Music in Connection concert curated by Absonus Lab.
Protolith (2010) — for marimba and electronic playback. Released on Electronic Masters Vol. 1 (Ablaze Records, 2012).
Three Songs After Anna Akhmatova (2009) — for clarinet, cello and electronic playback.
Phoenix Rising (2007) — for chamber orchestra and electronic playback.
Acheron (2006) — for electronic playback. Released on Electronic Masters Vol. 5 (Ablaze Records, 2016).
Archetypal Infusion: MemEry2k — for harp and electro-acoustic playback. Released on SEAMUS 11 (2002), with Ann Yeung, harp.
Residual Impact — for steel drum and electro-acoustic playback. Released on Origins (University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios, 2001), with Brandon Pool, steel drum.
Spawn — for electro-acoustic playback. Commissioned to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios, and included in the ICMC 2026 Listening Room in Hamburg.
Films
Who Speaks For Nature? (2018), dir. Larry Engel
In the Executioner's Shadow (2018), dir. Maggie Stogner Burnette
Rubi: A DACA Dreamer in Trump's America (2018), dir. Carolyn Brown
Wild About Hank (2016), dir. Emma Kouguell
When Mickey Came to Town (2016), dir. Sam Sheline
The Mama Sherpas (2015), dir. Brigid Maher
The Salinas Project (2014), dir. Carolyn Brown
Chinatown (2013), dir. Yi Chen
From the Fields: An American Journey (2012), dir. Carolyn Brown
On the Line (2010), dir. Carolyn Brown
Hard to Be Me (2009), dir. Erik Cieslewicz
Veiled Voices (2009), dir. Brigid Maher
Sheika Stories (2009), dir. Brigid Maher
Most High (2004), dir. Marty Sader. Grand Jury Prize, Atlanta International Film Festival (2005); Golden Starfish, Hamptons International Film Festival (2004); Prism Award for Outstanding DVD Release of the Year (2006)
Recordings
Aakati (2020), Nous Records: Pterois
Sound Silence Thought (2020): Tidal
Electronic Masters Vol. 5 (2016), Ablaze Records: Acheron
Electronic Masters Vol. 1 (2012), Ablaze Records: Protolith
50: In Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Experimental Music Studios (2008), University of Illinois: Phreximus
SEAMUS 11 (2002), SEAMUS: Archetypal Infusion: MemEry2k
Origins (2001), University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios: Residual Impact
Passages (1999), University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios: Spawn
Automaton
Phantomnesis selected work
"An homage to unending Rube Goldberg devices, built from Luigi Russolo's families of noise."
Paul A. Oehlers is one of the composers selected for Phantomnesis, an international call from Cambiata Arts for contemporary music, experimental composition and heritage-rooted works. His piece Automaton is included in the compilation Phantomnesis: Residues and Recalls. The call sought pieces that explore the forgotten, the near-forgotten and the reimagined. It welcomed works that bring neglected musical systems, regional practices, extinct gestures or overlooked aesthetic pathways into today's listening.
An international jury of six professional composers, performers and researchers reviewed each submission. Their own careers embody the premise of the call. Each has spent years bringing overlooked musical systems, regional practices and reimagined traditions into contemporary listening. The jurors work in Toronto, Hannover, Skopje, Bangkok and Tehran, and across Vienna, Graz and Klagenfurt in Austria. Their practices range from electroacoustic composition and open-source technology to somatic voice and live electronics, traditional Thai instruments, artistic research and jazz scholarship. They considered each work for its engagement with forgotten or near-forgotten material, its compositional richness and its artistic conviction. The five works in the compilation emerged from that process, and their composers are also invited to join the Cambiata Arts roster.
Automaton was written as an homage to unending Rube Goldberg devices. It employs different sounds according to Luigi Russolo's classifications in roughly equal amounts. The composer recorded the sounds remotely and assembled them in the construction of the piece. Additional sounds come from the convolution of sounds and from resonant filters.
The piece has been presented at Forum Wallis 2024 in Goms, Switzerland, as part of the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis selection, and in the Risonanze Empiriche Listening Room at the REF Resilience Festival 2024 in Foggia, Italy.
Oehlers works between the concert hall and the screen. His research interests are film scoring, electro-acoustic music composition, sound design, post-production sound for film, audio production, audio recording, and mixing and mastering.
His film scores include music for documentaries and features that have screened at festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Atlanta International Film Festival. Several of these films deal with identity, community and the natural world, among them Veiled Voices, The Salinas Project and Who Speaks For Nature?
His electronic music uses the same craft as his film work. Pieces such as Flux Hammer start from acoustic sources, such as physically altered piano strings, and transform them through convolution, resonant filtering and granular synthesis, so that familiar sounds become new ones.