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Enlightenment is simply the ability to remember continuously throughout the day,
in the midst of complex social interactions, that this moment is really all that we have,
that it is priceless and ephemeral, and is in itself a celebration and cause for wonder.
The widespread privelege for everyperson, of having the wherewithall to internally attain and proactively negotiate this view from moment to moment,
is the only legacy that is worth working toward, both individually and collectively as a society.
As a species we have a long, long way to go!
Toward a Cognitive-Based Theory of MusicPurchase CDs directly from the composer:
SWARMIUS — $9.99
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Joseph Waters — $5.99
Albany Records: Offshore – $16.99
MP3 Music Downloads
iTunes Music Downloads
Music Sample: Intelligent Designs [Excerpt]
NWEAMO 2008 • Call for Works
SWARMIUS
Program Notes etc.
Compositions
Performances
Press
Waters_Bluestone_Duel
Neolithic Orchestra
Real Quiet
Underwater Photographer Eric Cheng
Short Biography
Curriculum Vitae
Artistic Director - NWEAMO
(New West Electronic Arts & Music Organization)
Director of
Electro-Acoustic and Media Composition
Full Professor of Music
San Diego State University
"Waters charts a course between Jazz, Electro and Avant-Garde Music that would sit comfortably within the ebullient pluralism of the Bang-On-A-Can Festival: the style the New York critic Kyle Gann calls Totalism." Lindsay Vickery on Flame Head — Australasian Computer Music Conference, Melbourne
"It's extremely virtuosic, like the roadrunner on speed. It's a bit like Bela Bartok if he wrote cartoon music." Jeffrey Payne on Kali Yuga — Fear No Music, Portland
"... Waters' music speaks directly to listeners ... stimulating, theatrical, chromatic, often songful, frequently fast and exotically colored." David Stabler — The Oregonian
"The second half turned darker... [Waters] uses the ... sounds of a cello to evoke the ghosts that beset the ... dream state. It is both an eery, unsettling work and a tour de force for cello..." James McQuillan on Kanashibari — The Oregonian
"... you'd think the man had the king's horses teamed to his chariot, so effortlessly do electronic elements unite with traditional, classical instrumentation." Bill Smith — Willamette Week
Joseph Waters (b. 1952) is a member of the first generation of American classical composers who grew up playing in rock bands. Since childhood he has been intrigued by the confluence and tensions that bind the music of Europe and Africa. These frequently inspire his electro-acoustic compositions. His interests also include the investigation of physiological, sub-cultural pattern seeking mechanisms. He is working on a theory of cognition based on fractals and pattern recognition, with applications in music theory and composition.
Waters is the founder of NWEAMO (New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization). NWEAMO presents composers and musicians from around the world in concerts that unite the worlds of avant-garde classical and experimental electronica. Each October the NWEAMO Festival travels between San Diego and various international locations. NWEAMO has traveled to venues in Portland OR, Mexico City, New York City, and the countryside of Veneto just outside of Venice, Italy. Beginning in NWEAMO 2007 will also be presented in Boulder, Colorado and Berlin, Germany.
He performs and composes for the Waters_Bluestone_Duel, a collaboration with percussionist Joel Bluestone that explores the combination of live electronics and percussion, as well as SWARMIUS the virtuoso interdisciplinary quartet in residence at San Diego State University.
His work has been performed at venues which include: Australasian Computer Music Conferences Melbourne & Perth (Australia), Beethoven-Haus (Bonn Germany), Bomb the Space Festival Wellington (New Zealand), Composer's Hall Moscow Conservatory (Russia), Festival Internacional Cervantino Guanajuato (Mexico), Hong Kong Cultural Center, Hungarian Radio hosted Budapest & Nadasdy Castle (Hungary), Ljubljana Cultural Center (Slovenia), Rosario & San Martin de los Andes (Argentina), SEAMS Fylkingen Stockholm (Sweden),SoHo Apple Store performance stage New York City, Southern Theater Minneapolis, Theater Kikker (Utrecht Netherlands), Tsing Hua University (Beijing China), UNAM (Mexico City), University of Cadiz & Conservatorio Superior de Musica Valencia (Spain), Univ of Chile (Santiago), Wellington (New Zealand), Venetto Jazz Festival & Acadamia di Canto (Venice Italy), Warsaw Electronic Festival (Poland), and other locations ...
Recordings are available on iTunes, as well as Albany Records and North Pacific Records.
Waters studied composition at Yale University, the Universities of Oregon and Minnesota, as well as Stockholms Musikpedagogiska Institut. Primary teachers were Jacob Druckman, Bernard Rands, Roger Reynolds, Dominick Argento, and Martin Bresnick.