Pax Ressler (they/she) is a transfeminine performer, devisor and composer based in Philadelphia and a 2023 F. Otto Haas Emerging Artist Award Finalist. Their theatrical work can be described as a Trojan horse—given as a seemingly harmless gift, but sickeningly subversive once the audience’s guard is down. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and works as a creator, performer, music director, composer, designer and educator at Philadelphia Theatre companies, including Arden Theatre Company, Bearded Ladies Cabaret, FringeArts, Nicole Canuso Dance Company, People’s Light, Theatre Exile, Theatre Horizon, Simpatico Theatre, Shakespeare in Clark Park, Wilma Theater, 11th Hour, 1812 Productions and more. Pax is a gardener of community-focused projects, including Rise Choir and Genderfunk Philly. To see more of what Pax has been working on, visit the Project History tab. After releasing Change (2020), an album of non-binary love songs, she recently released dreams, a concept album based on half-awake voice memos.

Pax’s compositions have been performed across the nation and internationally. Her compositions were heard in the Barrymore Award-winning Contradict This! A Birthday Funeral for Heroes with the Bearded Ladies Cabaret on Cherry Street Pier in Philly and La MaMa in New York City. Pax recently performed their original music at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, La MaMa, and FringeArts in John Jarboe’s Rose: You Are Who You Eat (coming to Woolly Mammoth in June 2024). They graduated from Goshen College, having completed studies in music education, composition and theatre. While at Goshen College, she studied composition with celebrated composers Lee Dengler and Jorge Muñiz. To hear examples of Pax’s compositions, visit the Listen & Look, Composition History and Repertoire tabs.

Pax is a passionate advocate and organizer of the non-binary and trans community in Philly and a gardener of the Genderfunk Philly Instagram (@genderfunkphilly), a virtual Rolodex featuring Philly’s trans and non-binary theatre talent. Making music for queer, transgender, and non-binary communities has been a central inspiration for Pax’s work as a singer-songwriter and recording artist. In 2014, she released an album entitled Stand By Me: Hymns of Hope & Healing based on songs from her Mennonite upbringing. In 2017, Pax collaborated with Sam Congdon to release an EP of non-binary love songs entitled In the Eyes, which inspired the full-length acoustic and electric albums for Change, which were released in November of 2020. In December 2023, they released an album based on their dreams.

Pax is the gardener of Rise Choir (@risechoircollective), a paid, non-audition, civic collective of singers. Rise Choir exists to: get our communities singing; live into our fully-embodied, queer, trans, singing selves; and share our vision of a better world. You’ll find Rise Choir at free public events in Philadelphia like protests, parades, community gatherings, and more. Visit the Rise Choir linktree to get involved!

Do you have an idea for an original piece of music? To get started or gather inspiration, please visit the Commission a New Work tab. To contact Pax, please visit the Contact tab.

Use the following links to visit Pax’s pages on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp. You can also find Pax’s music on any streaming service.

Other Projects:

Pax is the gardener of Rise Choir, a collective of singers invigorating community spaces with joy.

The Genderfunk Philly Instagram, featuring trans & non-binary theatre talent in Philadelphia.

Art Isn’t Easy is a parody/comedy video series about the trials and triumphs of being an artist.

Monday Night Airwaves is a vocal band in three-part harmony, singing soul-stirring music.

A Howlround article about Philly’s non-binary community and Twelfth Night.