Jackson A. Waters (MM ’25), has been named the 2025 recipient of the Emerging Black Composer Project (EBCP) Cabrillo Festival Prize by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. The national initiative, presented in partnership with the San Francisco Symphony, recognizes outstanding early-career Black composers writing bold and compelling orchestral music today.
As part of the award, Waters will receive a commission, serve as Composer-in-Residence, and have a new orchestral work premiered during the Festival’s 2027 season. His orchestral work Defending Greenwood will also be featured during the Festival’s 2026 season—an extraordinary honor that places him among today’s most promising emerging voices in orchestral composition.
As a student in the NYU Steinhardt Concert Composition program, Waters studied with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Julia Wolfe, alongside acclaimed composers Shelley Washington and Justin Dello Joio. His work was developed and performed through leading programs including the American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot Readings, the New York Youth Symphony’s Jon Deak First Music Competition, and the NYU Steinhardt Composers Residency.
Waters credits his artistic growth to the mentorship, performance opportunities, and professional preparation he received in the Concert Composition program. “Having Defending Greenwood presented by a festival so committed to new music, and being entrusted with a future commission, is an honor beyond words,” he said. “It affirms the importance of telling our stories through orchestral music.”
