Chicago-based composer, vocalist, and collaborator PJ Mooney (b. 2000) explores story-driven narratives, theatrics, social issues, and the queer experience through music. With an emphasis on exploring interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches, PJ has worked with musicians, visual artists, poets, filmmakers, and scientists. His styles and genres of interest include neo-classical, neo-romantic, electroacoustic, and modern contemporary musics.
Most recently, PJ strives to use his music as journalism, as an ongoing educational and outreach commitment of creating work that engages with various social issues. On March 30th, 2026, PJ premiered his master’s thesis work Blood is Blood is Blood, a “documentary-oratorio” centered around unheard voices and stories of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The work was created in collaboration with lyricist and research collaborator Katherine E. Ragodos.
PJ was recently announced as winner of the Nathan Davis Grand Prize in Composition in the 2025-2026 Daniel Thompson Memorial Competition, where he was commissioned to write a new piece for the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus. PJ’s Requiem for a Poisoned Earth was the national winner of the The American Prize in Composition—choral music (major works), 2025 as well as The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, College;/University soloists or composers, 2025. The piece was also featured as the topic of Dr. Andrea Pinder’s Dissertation “Requiem for a Poisoned Earth: How PJ Mooney’s 2023 Composition Brings Awareness to Socio-Environmental Issues, Past and Present.”
In 2023, PJ received a We Mean Green Fund of around $28,000 from the University of North Texas for the production of his Requiem for a Poisoned Earth, a large scale, across-campus collaboration between musicians, artists, and scientists of UNT’s Advanced Environmental Research Institute (AERI). Additionally, he worked with members of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to spread awareness of the dangers of hazardous PFAS “forever chemicals.”
PJ holds an M.A. and B.M. in Music Composition from the University of North Texas, where he primarily studied with Dr. Kirsten Soriano and Professor David Stout.
