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Nathaniel Haering

  • Lecturer, Composition & Technology, Music Theory

Education

  • PhD, Music, University of California San Diego
  • MM, Bowling Green State University
  • BM, Composition, Western Michigan University

Biography

Nathaniel Haering uses live electronics and real-time audio processing to augment the expressive capabilities of traditional acoustic instruments. His work celebrates the beauty in the clicks, pops, scrapes, and noises that are often considered “errors” in other musical contexts, amplifying them as the primary material from which he crafts each piece. Juxtaposing extreme virtuosity and sincere vulnerability and intertwining strict notation and improvisation, he develops these noisy materials into expansive, malleable sound worlds that morph, undulate, and could erupt, or disintegrate, at any moment. Nathaniel’s research focuses on immersive spatial audio, co-opting machine learning as a tool for creative sonic expression, audiovisual synergy, and the manipulation and perception of time, timbre, texture, and physical gesture in acoustic and electroacoustic music.

Nathaniel has collaborated with and had works performed by Grammy® Award-winning Vietnamese performer and composer Vân Ánh Võ, Trio Accanto, Ensemble Mise-En, Mivos Quartet, in^set, Wild Up, and members of WasteLAnd, Ensemble Ipse, Ensemble Dal Niente, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the LA Phil. Winner of the 2019 ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Award, the 2019 PRIX CIME Residency Prize, and the Mixed Media Award of Distinction from MA/IN festival in Matera, Italy, Nathaniel’s work can be found on flux, vol. 33 as well as multiple volumes of Music from SEAMUS. His pieces have recently been featured at the International Computer Music Conference in Shanghai, Seoul, and NYC; the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium in Toronto; Noisefloor Festival at Staffordshire University, UK; VIPA in Valencia, Spain; WOCMAT in HsinChu City, Taiwan; SONIC MATTER in Zürich, Switzerland; and at numerous other international venues. Nathaniel completed a Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of California San Diego and is a Lecturer in Composition & Technology and Theory at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Links

Recent Work

Dark gallery installation showing three seated performers in separate pools of light beneath tall, vertical projections glowing blue and gold.
Sonoluminescence: Instrumental trio, live projections and live surround sound electronics – a recent collaboration with visual artist Mingyong Cheng and in^set trio presented at CalIT2 with support from a Qualcomm Institute IDEAS grant.
Wide view of a contemporary ensemble performing onstage, with a conductor leading string, wind, and percussion players seated under cool blue stage lighting.
Spate III: Large Chamber Ensemble – performed by the UC San Diego Palimpsest Ensemble.
Motion-blurred image of a person playing a trumpet, with golden light trails tracing the instrument and hands against a dark background.
Sonoluminescence: David Aguila playing a double bell trumpet.
Motion-blurred close-up of a person playing a violin, with hands and bow in movement against a dark background.
Sonoluminescence: Ilana Waniuk playing violin.
Motion-blurred close-up of a person playing a woodwind instrument, with warm light streaks and soft blue highlights against a dark background.
Sonoluminescence: Teresa Díaz de Cossio.
Large video wall displaying black-and-white footage of a person working inside a piano, with hands adjusting strings and mechanisms across tiled screens.
Live video of Nathaniel Haering inside of a piano displayed on ultra-high resolution video wall.

Artistic Works & Performances

Sonoluminescence (2025) for in^set trio, live electronics, immersive 8.2 audio, live audio-reactive projections, in collaboration with visual artist Mingyong Cheng Premiere: 5/15/2025 at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, UC San Diego thanks to Qualcomm Institute IDEAS grant

Awards

  • Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award Third Prize (2026)
  • ensemble_Codec International Call for Scores (2025)
  • ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Award Honorable Mention (2024)
  • Fromm Foundation Composer Fellowship (2023)
  • Matera Intermedia Mixed Media Honorary Mention (2023)
  • Impulse New Music Festival Call for Scores (2022)
  • CONFINI Electroacoustic Chamber Music Call For Works Honorable Mention (2021)
  • ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission First Prize (2019)
  • PRIX CIME Residency Award (2019)
  • OSSIA New Music International Call for Scores (2019)
  • Matera Intermedia Mixed Media Award of Distinction First Prize (2018)
  • International Phil Windsor Computer Music Competition Third Prize (2018)