Joe Williams
Joe Williams (b. 1993) is a sound liberator from Tacoma, WA.
A proud graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, Joe Williams received mentorship from pioneering pianist Francis Walker-Slocum (1924-2018). He has since maintained a distinguished musical career over the past decade, performing classical repertoire across the United States and in countries such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. He has recently redirected his creative energy towards composing music that reflects his lived experience as a black, queer, neurodivergent, spiritual body. His purpose is to craft soundscapes wherein folks can exist in their own unpoliced states of multiplicity and abundance.
Whether performing, improvising, or composing, sound is Williams' vehicle for channeling ancestral memory to engage audiences in liberatory experiences. He finds inspiration in the living philosophies and healing modalities of jazz, black radical thought, hip hop, neo-soul, atonality and negro spirituals. He is currently collaborating with poet Sah Pham to create a water-inspired piece promoting themes of adolescent mental wellness and belonging, set to be premiered by the Tacoma Youth Symphony and Tacoma Youth Chorus in 2025. His hope is that listeners encounter a deeper sense of embodiment and wholeness from this work.
Williams has been invited by interdisciplinary artist Anida Yoeu Ali to join a delegation of six Tacoma-based arts leaders and policymakers seeking to build relationships throughout Yogjakarta, Indonesia’s creative economy this summer.
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