About

Joshua McHugh is an Australian composer, animator, performer and educator, and the creator of the So Me and Sal world. His work includes an award-winning opera, major commissioned concert works, a published beginner piano method, university lecturing, silent-film accompaniment, orchestral performance and award-winning language-revival projects spanning film, animation, puppetry and songwriting.

He lectured in keyboard harmony at the Australian National University for three years, where he authored the course textbook and developed one of the School of Music’s most popular electives. He also worked for several years as a silent-film accompanist for the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. His creative work includes an award-winning opera, the commissioned centenary Mass for Canberra Girls Grammar School, and the So Me and Sal audio series.

At Pama Language Centre, he has directed and facilitated award-winning First Nations language-revival projects spanning live-action film, animation, puppetry and songwriting. This work has included projects in Guugu Yimithirr, Mpakwithi, Injinoo Ikya and Wik Mungkan, developed in collaboration with language speakers, knowledge holders and communities. He is also developing a scalable platform game for First Nations literacy, beginning with Guugu Yimithirr and designed for adaptation to Injinoo Ikya, Mpakwithi, Wik Mungkan and other languages.

Through Treble Chook, he is developing So Mi and Slime, a music-literacy platform game that turns staff notation into game mechanics. His broader aim is to create story-worlds in which music, narrative and pedagogy work together to make learning playful, intuitive and deeply human.