Paris Hurley is a composer, performer, and writer based in Philadelphia. A classically trained violinist of 36 years turned post-punk vocalist, her work is raw, defiant, and refined, ranging from records, film scores, rock shows, and string quartets, to community scream rituals, gestural choreography, and essays about motherhood and creative practice.
She is the creator of OBJECT AS SUBJECT, a shapeshifting autobiographical exploration questioning the edges of obligation and objecthood as a woman. The project is contained only by Paris’ particular web of keening, versatile vocals—at times, a music and dance collective thrashing through audiences with gritty ceremonial punk meets performance art, at others, a sacred and cinematic world filled with pulsing drums, synths, and lush string arrangements. OBJECT AS SUBJECT has released two albums, PERMISSION (2018) and HERETIC (2023) on Lost Future Records.
Paris has contributed to film scores by Clint Mansell (Love Lies Bleeding, 2024), and Anne Nikitin (Little Wing, 2024), and is scoring the forthcoming short doc, OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage (2024). Additionally, her music has appeared in Are You Afraid of the Dark (2019), The Republic of Sarah (2021), and Fast Charlie (2023), and was listed as a favorite on the 2023 Rollo Grady year end list.
Her work as a violinist has taken Paris into the studio and onto the stage with countless artists including David Byrne, Amanda Palmer, Angel Olsen, SoKo, Neil Gaiman, Mirah, Jherek Bischoff, Beth Fleenor, and Degenerate Art Ensemble, with special appearances at Merkin Concert Hall (NY), TED (Vancouver, BC), the REDCAT (LA), the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SF), and On the Boards (Seattle).
From 2008-2016, Paris composed, recorded, and toured as a violinist with Seattle-based Balkan punk legends, Kultur Shock, performing hundreds of shows for ravenous audiences in tiny punk squats to 100,000 seater festivals throughout Europe. Also during this time, Paris’ dancetheater work was presented in Seattle at On the Boards, CityArts Fest, the Henry Art Gallery, the Northwest Film Forum, Velocity Dance Center, Seattle Center, Seattle University’s Hedreen Gallery, Project: Space Available, and the James Washington House.