Jackson A. Waters

BMI Composer Award-Winner Jackson A. Waters is crafting musical experiences that connect genres, disciplines, and audiences together. As a recipient of the Steinhardt Scholarship at New York University, he studied under Julia Wolfe, Justin Dello Joio, and Shelley Washington. His symphony depicting the Tulsa Race Massacre, Defending Greenwood, has been recognized by multiple institutions, winning him the Emerging Black Composer Project Cabrillo Prize, American Composers Orchestra Earshot Reading, NYU Steinhardt Composers Residency, and more. His other works earned him opportunities including Salastina’s Composer Collective and was named the Grand Prize winner for the New York Youth Symphony’s Jon Deak First Music Competition, commissioning him to write the piano quartet, Migrate, including premieres at Carnegie Hall with the Black and female-led dance studio Emerge125 and Interlochen Center for the Arts. His new orchestra piece, my rage is quiet, earned him the ARTZenter Institute Composer Completion Grant, premiering his work with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at Herbst Theatre. Through the Emerging Black Composers Project Cabrillo Prize, Jackson is the new composer-in-residence at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, programming Defending Greenwood and commissioning a new orchestral work.