San Diego Reader

Felix Olschofka: Violin | Todd Rewoldt: Saxophone | Joel Bluestone: Percussion | Joseph Waters: Composer, Keyboards, Percussion

Genre: Classical, Noise | Xprmntl

RIYL: Kronos Quartet, John Cage

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Related Links

• Swarmius website

• "Syncopated Space Rockers" · April 16, 2014

• "In Search of High Notes" · June 18, 2013

• "Fifty Years of "Wipe Out": A Surfaris Retrospective" · July 16, 2012

• "Surf — Swarmius takes Orchestra Nova to the Beach" · May 14, 2012

• Waters page on SDSU site
• New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization
• josephwaters.com

Synoposis

Influences: John Cage, Arnold Schöenberg, Frank Zappa, Webern, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven

Background:

Since 2001, composer Joseph Waters has been a professor of music and director of electro-acoustic and media composition at San Diego State University. The 50-something composer/musician has degrees from the University of Minnesota, the University of Oregon, and Yale.

Todd Rewoldt goes by the name of Saximus, on stage. The SDSU music professor performs in a cutting edge avant chamber group headquartered in La Mesa called Swarmius.

Swarmius mixes European classical music with more tribal-sounding African tones. They performed for the first time in early 2008 at the Neurosciences Institute.

Waters founded the NWEAMO (New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization), which says it promotes “connections between the composers, performers, and lovers of avant-garde classical music and the DJs, MCs, guitar-gods, troubadours, and gourmets of experimental popular music.”

At SDSU, Waters has instituted a new major, Electro-Acoustic Composition, with courses geared toward creative experiments within so-called popular genres such as rock, metal, hip-hop, and electronica.