# https://pjmooneymusic.com ## Posts - [Growing Pains](https://pjmooneymusic.com/growing-pains/2026/): Winner of the Nathan Davis Grand Prize in Composition in the 2025-2026 Daniel Thompson Memorial Competition for Young Composers. Commissioned by the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Alex Canovas, artistic director. What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to grow? To move through time, experience life, and change? In this moment, what feels most true to me is this: sometimes, growing up can hurt. Life is filled with moments of emotional, physical, and mental strain. Yet it is through these outward struggles and quiet, internal battles, through these growing pains, that we are reminded we are alive […] - [Visual Credits - Blood is Blood is Blood](https://pjmooneymusic.com/visual-credits-blood-is-blood-is-blood/2026/): The premiere performance of Blood is Blood is Blood contains several projected images collected and displayed by visual collaborator Beige Cowell. This performance constitutes a collection of individually licensed works; no single unified visual derivative is claimed. The images and photography included are credited below with their respective licenses. Special thanksto Noelle Hanrahan, The National AIDS Memorial, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Elvert Barnes. Return to Blood is Blood is Blood. - [Blood is Blood is Blood](https://pjmooneymusic.com/blood-is-blood-is-blood/2026/): Watch the livestream @ 3/30/26 5:00pm here! Blood is Blood is Blood is a documentary-oratorio for choir, flute, clarinet, piano, e. guitar, and double bass centered around unheard stories of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In collaboration with lyricist Katherine E. Ragodos, the project features newly written libretto intertwined with medical research and publications, quotes from the National AIDS Memorial Quilt, obituaries, protest interviews and signage, and letters from marginalized voices of the epidemic. The project also features the powerful poem, “Heartbeats” by Melvin Dixon (1950-1992). The concert takes the form of a “live musical documentary,” in which live performance is paired […] - [The Puppet Show](https://pjmooneymusic.com/the-puppet-show/2025/): Thank you for participating as a member of our live studio audience! Please enjoy the immersive taping of your favorite sock puppet pals on their latest bout of hijinks and shenanigans. Featuring new guest, Atlas, and as always, hosted by your human friends PJ and Beige! Script, Music, Puppeteering, Live Performers – Beige Cowell, PJ Mooney Puppets, Props, Lighting Design, Visual/Digital Assets, Theme Song Animation – Beige Cowell Audio Engineer, Audio Mastering, Video Editing, Video Effects – PJ Mooney AI Assets, Video Recording – Shyam Shah Technical Assistance – Colin Stokes Theme Song Vocalist – Justin Friello Puppet Voice Actors – Ben Damann, Justin Friello, Sarah Hamilton, Veronica Ibargüengoitia, Chris Mason, Peter Mayes, Colin Stokes, […] - [Tiny Travelers](https://pjmooneymusic.com/tiny-travelers/2025/): “Tiny Travelers” is an interactive soundwalk experience set in Quakertown Park in Denton, TX. The project explores two different sound worlds, one realistic and one hyper-realistic. Tiny Travelers is hosted on the MyCity-MySounds application, which uses the listeners’ location to play various sounds of the assigned locations; this application also has two different modes: one for above ground and one below ground. I wanted to make a hyper-realistic soundscape from the perspective of someone who has shrunk to the size of bugs. Thus, this project includes both an interactive, story-driven adventure of experiencing the world at the macroinvertebrate level as […] - [Ashes of Life](https://pjmooneymusic.com/ashes-of-life/2025/): A mentor once told me, “You don’t have to change the world, you just have to make your corner of it a better place.” For years I have tried to do this through my own music, but sometimes I struggle. Sometimes the words don’t fit or the music doesn’t motivate me. Sometimes I even question how much I want music in my life at all. I wrote this as a reminder to value and find meaning in the little moments. Singing with friends, listening to stories, and cherishing memories… these are the times when we can all make our corners […] - [I want like to tell you a story](https://pjmooneymusic.com/i-would-like-to-tell-you-a-story/2024/): This project visually explores retrofuturism, where the ideas of the future meet today’s technological advancements. The piece examines themes of obsolescence, purpose, and humanity’s accelerating pace toward mechanization and globalization. Music: PJ Mooney Visuals: Sam Sanchez Premiered November 3, 2024 at Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater - [A Twisted Tale](https://pjmooneymusic.com/a-twisted-tale/2024/): A Twisted Tale (2024) is an extended technique voice piece for solo baritone and theatrics, originally written for UNT’s Composer’s Forum 24/24 event. The piece tells a humorous, jumbled fairytale where Little Red Riding Hood, the city mayor, is attempting to eminent domain the land where The Three Little Pigs have built their houses. Little Red hires the Big Bad Wolf (aka Wolfgang) to destroy their houses, but will he have enough time to stop her when he learns of her villainous plans? Premiered by Jaden Jackson-Cooper on Feb. 23, 2024, Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater - [Death is a Dialogue](https://pjmooneymusic.com/death-is-a-dialogue/2024/): Program Notes Emily Dickinson’s “Death is a Dialogue” conveys an interaction between the “Spirit” and “Death.” Throughout, Death and the Spirit discuss the ending occurrences of life; Death argues that one’s existence will simply dissolve away, while the Spirit reveals a hopeful life after passing. These intertwining elements of relief and hope against manipulation and argument are evident with the various vocal colors and registral placement distinctions for each character. Throughout the piece, the Spirit performs lyrical, forward, and open phrases, while Death performs with broken, backwards, and sonically muffled tones. Text Death is a Dialogue betweenThe Spirit and the […] - [want2play?](https://pjmooneymusic.com/want2play/2024/): want2play? uses recordings of various game-related materials like dice, board-game pieces and boxes, keyboard and gaming consoles/controllers. It loosely follows the story of an individual who discovers magical dice that, when rolled, transport the individual to a new “world.” As the individual continues to roll the dice, these worlds become more and more hostile, eventually trapping the individual. - [Haunted](https://pjmooneymusic.com/haunted/2023/): Program Notes Haunted is an extended vocal technique composition that tells the story of a man being stalked by a creature as he makes his way home at night. With aesthetic inspiration from Lachenmann’s Guero, the piece uses a custom graphic notation structure with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) system I experimented with during my undergraduate studies. Now, I wanted to see the ways I could push the system further by including more voice types and extending ranges and IPA materials. Text Evening was in the wood, luring with storm.A time of drought had sucked the weedy poolAnd baked the […] - [Requiem for a Poisoned Earth](https://pjmooneymusic.com/requiem-for-a-poisoned-earth/2023/): Requiem for a Poisoned Earth is an environmentally driven oratorio for orchestra and chorus, featuring four soloists and saxophone quartet. The work aims to educate audiences on the dangers of hazardous PFAS “forever chemicals.” Developed in the early 1950s, these chemicals have been released, buried, and dumped into almost every ecosystem worldwide. PFOA, a specific industrial surfactant, was utilized in several fields/products, most notably in consumer non-stick cookware coatings (Teflon). Over 99% of all life is poisoned by PFAS. PFOA is one of over 80,000 unregulated chemicals currently in U.S. production. The work follows characters THE HUSBAND (tenor) and THE […] - [Reflections...](https://pjmooneymusic.com/reflections/2023/): Reflections… was created as an accompanying score to a short film that explored visual reflections and repetitions. - [Autumn](https://pjmooneymusic.com/autumn/2023/): Autumn is a chamber work for soprano, clarinet, and piano, originally composed for Danielle Harrington, Anthony Orr, and Timothy Sanchez. TEXT: The thistledown’s flying, though the winds are all still, On the green grass now lying, now mounting the hill, The spring from the fountain now boils like a pot; Through stones past the counting it bubbles red-hot. The ground parched and cracked is like overbaked bread, The greensward all wracked is, bents dried up and dead. The fallow fields glitter like water indeed, And gossamers twitter, flung from weed unto weed. Hill-tops like hot iron glitter bright in the […] - [Hansel and Gretel](https://pjmooneymusic.com/hansel-and-gretel/2023/): This is an excerpt from my setting of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel. The piece begins with the father (represented by the trombone) advising his children to be careful as they play in the woods. Hansel and Gretel (represented by the oboes and clarinets) joyously run into the woods, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind to signal the path home. But, they soon realize that the animals of the forest have eaten their guiding trail home, and venture nervously to find the way back. Suddenly a flock of birds (represented by the flutes and piccolo) lead them deeper into the […] - [All the things we can say with no words](https://pjmooneymusic.com/all-the-things-we-can-say-with-no-words/2023/): Created in collaboration with choreographer Asiyah Martin, this dance score explores non-verbal communication both visually and aurally. The fixed media “back-track” intertwines the pre-recorded piano/electronics with the live, amplified piano. Dancers: Asiyah Martin & Nayla Mireles - [Three Letter Word](https://pjmooneymusic.com/three-letter-word/2022/): Collaboration with filmmaker Spencer Pruitt, premiered April 2022, this soundtrack accompanies a short drama-documentary about LGBTQ+ sexual experiences and stigmas. - [Curse of the Wailing Woman](https://pjmooneymusic.com/curse-of-the-wailing-woman/2021/): Curse of the Wailing Woman is a collaboration with Patrick Gillaspie for a custom game scenario within the Valkyrie software. The story follows a Welsh woman who, upon learning that she is soon to be the next sacrifice to an ancient sea monster, must figure out a way to prevent her imminent death and save her seaside town from destruction. - [Parting Dance](https://pjmooneymusic.com/parting-dance/2021/): Parting Dance was originally composed for string quartet (2020), and revised for the Pyxis Saxophone Quartet (2021). - [Meraki](https://pjmooneymusic.com/meraki/2021/) - [Archive Tape 25 - 7.12.2003](https://pjmooneymusic.com/archive-tape-25-7-12-2003/2021/): Archive Tape 25 – 7.12.2003 is an intermedia work for fixed media and five-screen video. The work simulates a found-footage, memory loss program with images of liminal spaces, asking the audience to “help her remember…” Anna Schmelter – Narrator Premiered at UNT Spectrum, February 21, 2021, Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater - [Come, Close Your Eyes](https://pjmooneymusic.com/come-close-your-eyes/2021/): Created in collaboration with lyricist Patrick Gillaspie, Come, Close Your Eyes is sung from the perspective of a chemical company that is knowingly poisoning people, enticing them to believe that nothing is wrong. This composition became the foundation for movements 12-14 of Requiem for a Poisoned Earth. - [Connections...](https://pjmooneymusic.com/connections/2020/): Connections… is a collection of nine distinct, indeterminate, gamified movements, organized by complexity from lowest to highest. The work aimed to transfer common ice-breaker and party games like “telephone” or checkers into a musical variation, encouraging musicians (and, in some cases, audience members) to connect in musically collaborative or competitive ways. Movements: - [Sea Glass](https://pjmooneymusic.com/sea-glass/2020/) - [RAIN](https://pjmooneymusic.com/rain/2020/) - [Organized Disjunction](https://pjmooneymusic.com/organized-disjunction/2020/): for solo bassoon - [Dies Irae](https://pjmooneymusic.com/dies-irae/2019/) ## Pages - [Contact](https://pjmooneymusic.com/contact/) - [Works](https://pjmooneymusic.com/works/): Large ensemble Chamber ensemble Choral ensemble Solo Fixed Media & Other Collaborations Other - [Biography](https://pjmooneymusic.com/biography/): 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 […] [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)