Woody Mo (莫忧) is a composer and interdisciplinary artist whose practice integrates composition, improvisation, screen scoring, interactive media, and audiovisual art. His work explores reinterpretations of traditional philosophy and folklore through contemporary media and performance practices. His sound practices focus on reconstructing acoustics through additive and subtractive processes, including amplification and filtering, which extend into multimedia practices centered on feedback systems and media conversion. His work has been presented in music festivals and multimedia exhibitions, including The WaveCave and Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival.
Mo is currently an artist-in-residence at The Reef in Downtown Los Angeles. Mo received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts.
I build my practice around composition. I return to the origin of the word "compose": to form by putting things together. I often construct a sophisticated aggregate out of simple materials across a wide range of media: a calligraphic stroke, a sine wave at 55 Hz, the noise floor of a Tunisian mosque, a hand movement on a guqin that produces non-musical sounds, or the Chinese character for chrysanthemum. To compose is a process of curating these materials, and it is not limited to music. I am also the composer of my sound art, visual art, creative coding, and their intersections.
I am drawn to the aesthetics of reconstruction and reinterpretation, which can take the form of reconstructing a preknown sound through different media, or reinterpreting a traditional perception through a contemporary perspective. My work is often centered around ideas from folklore and Chinese philosophy, which I draw on to reimagine new aesthetic possibilities between sound, image, gesture, space, interaction, and iconography.
CV.pdf
Education
MFA, Composition and Experimental Sound Practices (Specialization in Integrated Media), California Institute of the Arts
BM, Composition (Minor in History), University of Missouri-Kansas City
Festivals / Exhibitions / Residencies
2026, Experiments in Electronic Sounds Festival, Valencia, CA
2026, The Reef Residency, Los Angeles, CA
2026, The WaveCave, Valencia, CA
2023, The 20th Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music, Vinalhaven, ME
2022, The 12th Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, New York City, NY
Selected Works
2026, Three Caresses - composition for guqin, transducer and live electronics
2026, (Sound of No-)Sound: Qin - modified guqin improvisation with audio-reactive calligraphy drawing machine
2026, Prayer Wheel - interactive installation
2026, F.L.E.E.C.E. - game soundtrack, sound design
2026, Tunisia - composition for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin, cello, percussion and piano
2026, Girl with Mountain - film score
2025, Tree Man - audio-reactive animation
2025, Sky Burial - animation score, sound design
2023, Gu Diao - composition for erhu, bass clarinet, cello and piano
2024, Expectation - composition for soprano saxophone
2022, Times of Turmoil - composition for soprano guan in G and string quartet