Since 2001, composer Joe 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.
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. The courses are geared for "creative experiments within so-called 'Popular' genres such as rock, metal, hip-hop, electronica," according to the University's website.
Waters' own quartet Swarmius mixes European classical music with more tribal-sounding African sounds. They performed for the first time in early 2008 at the Neurosciences Institute.