ABOUT
With focus on instrumental idioms, with expressions of identity and obscurity, with inspirations from sounding elements from Hong Kong.
Joshua Wat is a composer from Hong Kong, active in Sweden. He has composed for orchestra, choir, various ensembles and solo instruments, as well as electronics. He has worked with ensembles like Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and Gageego!.
He has won the Stellar Composition Competition with his Prologue to Neither Here nor There for solo marimba. He was also a recipient of the Merit award of the 1st Hong Kong International Composition Competition for Chromatic Harmonica for his concerto my breath in your ears. His work flight from cement has received an honorary mention at Ensemble Black Pencil's Uitgast Festival Prize. His piano quintet Souvenir of Fallen Grace was a finalist entry in the O/Modernt Composition Award in Sweden. His viola quartet Vanity of Repetition was also selected to be performed at a concert by the Dutch Viola Society. In 2021, he was accepted into the Swedish Society of Composers (Föreningen svenska tonsättare).
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Joshua studied music composition at a master’s level at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg in Sweden. He was the recipient of the Stena Stiftelsen scholarship and the Stiftelsen Otto och Charlotte Mannheimer scholarship. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree of Music from Hong Kong Baptist University with a focus on music composition courses. In and out of university, he has studied composition and music theory with composers including Malin Bång, Ole Lützow-Holm, Alain Chiu Long Tin, Mike McFerron, Christopher Keyes and David Urrows.
During his study at Baptist University, he also studied the viola with Andrew Ling. Joshua Wat was a principal violist of the Collegium Musicum Hong Kong and the HKBU Symphony Orchestra from 2017 to 2018. He also attained LTCL in viola in 2015.