About Gregory J. Watson

Gregory J. Watson (1993) is a composer, performer, and educator dedicated to the creation, production, and performance of new music. Watson’s music places emphasis on color, texture, and pacing, with influences of minimalism, spectralism, avant-garde, ambience, drone, and noise. Watson has written for and worked closely with many new music ensembles and performers such as loadbang, occasionalNoise trio, The American Trombone Quartet, William Lang, and Duo Cortona.
     In 2018 Watson’s piece music for liminal spaces won the Illinois State University Large Ensemble Composition Competition. It was premiered by the Illinois State University Symphonic Winds, directed by Dr. Tony Marinello. In 2020 Watson’s piece four textures for orchestra won the Frost School of Music’s Concerto Competition, Composition Category. Due to complications from COVID, the premier is TBA. Watson regularly works with improvisation and free sound exploration through graphic scores and electronic mediums such as noise and ambience.
     Watson’s primary teachers include Dorothy Hindman, Charles Normal Mason, Brad Decker, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson, and Martha Horst, with additional lessons and masterclasses being taken from Carter Pann, Amy Beth Kirsten, Aaron Helgeson, Jeremy Van Buskirk, Laura Schwendinger, Melinda Wagner, and George Lewis. A native to Illinois, Watson received his Master of Music degree from Illinois State University and his Bachelor of Music degree from Eastern Illinois University. He recently received his DMA in composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.