I’m Rachel Austin, a composer, vocalist, and sound designer based in Richmond, Virginia.
I’m Rachel Austin, a composer, vocalist, and sound designer based in Richmond, Virginia. My work moves between electronic music composition, vocal scoring for dance and screen, and hands-on audio production—often building immersive experiences that combine live voice and electronics with carefully crafted fixed-media sections.
I studied Performance + Performance Studies at Pratt Institute (MFA, 2022), and and hold a degree in Electronic Music Composition from Mills College (2016). My practice has included commissions and collaborations with organizations and groups such as Hauser & Wirth, Kronos Quartet, pateldanceworks, and Christ Church Cathedral Dublin. “Life in the Heartland”, a documentary for which I was sound recordist, won a Capital Emmy, as well a piece I did sound design and vocals for ("95 Rituals for Anna Halprin) won an Isadora Duncan Dance Award.
NB, I hold a UK Residents’ Permit so am able to take on UK-based contracts.
For this tribute piece, I offer lengthy breaths throughout composer Erika Oba's piano introduction. The piece is a prayer written for friends passed and so I wanted to draw on a sense of grief whilst still offering the listener a sense of stability.
In this defining moment of the film, I wanted to capture the wonder of finding 500 fireflies in jars with your crush at your side. I composed this short piece for cello, voices, and synthesizer.
I wrote this song for voice and guitar and worked with Billboard ranking producer Brian Beattie and drummer Dony Wynn (Robert Plant, Robert Palmer) to create the right soundscape for the piece. Dark Eyes shows my ability to cover a 2 octave range as a singer.
The director of You are Here, Will McConnell, asked me to invoke a sense of old Appalachia - my birthplace - through the vocals in order to give a sense of introspection to the scenes.
A song I wrote for a troubled young person who had obsessively called a police station 500 times in a day! I re-wrote the chorus overnight at the behest of my producer who was impressed at my ability to quickly re-work material.
My remit for this piece was to create a sense of space that could voice over quotes written by the dancers concerning their relationship with the land. I attempted to create both a sense of the present moment through the ice in a glass and synthesizers and a sense of the past through the extended vocals. I composed the score for this site-specific screen dance film using voice, found objects, extended vocals, synthesizers, and Max MSP.
Prepared students and adults for recitals. Developed and teaches 'Singing and the Body,' a somatic and voice science class.
Composed original pieces for site-specific venues, theaters, museums, and screen; combined live voice and electronics with fixed-media sections. Provided sound direction for immersive dance performances, overseeing electronic composition and vocal scoring across multiple productions.
Recorded and designed audio for health education media productions.
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