Andrew Watts

Andrew Watts’ works, from chamber and symphonic to multimedia and electro-acoustic, are actively performed throughout the US and Europe. He researches the compositional applications of language desemanticization, focusing on the ability to convey expression through the voice even when specific meaning is lost, augmented, or otherwise unintelligible. His writing also actively explores musical extremes through gradients of freedom and restriction, ambiguity and detail, purity and distortion, along with sound and noise. Often he includes invented instruments to broaden the palette of what a performer can do. In the past few years Mr. Watts has written for top musicians and ensembles including Ekmeles, Proton Bern, Distractfold, RAGE Thormbones, Splinter Reeds, Quince, Line Upon Line, Tony Arnold, Séverine Ballon, and LAPQ. In 2018-2019 he will be writing a new chamber orchestra with dual soprano soloist piece for Dal Niente. He is currently the Dorothy Culver Haynie Music Fellow at Stanford studying with Brian Ferneyhough and working towards a D.M.A. in Composition. Mr. Watts received his master's with distinction from Oxford and his bachelor's with academic honors from the New England Conservatory. He has been a featured composer at the impuls Academy (Austria), Rainy Days Festival (Luxembourg), Delian Academy (Greece), Young Composers Meeting (Netherlands), Cheltenham Music Festival (England), Course for New Music at Darmstadt (Germany), Composit Festival (Italy), Ostrava Days Institute (Czech Republic), highSCORE Festival (Italy), Wellesley Composers Conference (USA), Etchings Festival (France), Fresh Inc. Festival (USA), New Music on the Point (USA), and Atlantic Music Festival (USA).