High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Founded by composer Joseph Waters in Portland, Oregon, U.S. in 1998, the New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization (NWEAMO) produces an annual international festival of electro-acoustic music. The mission of NWEAMO is to forge 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. When there is no connection, both suffer: When classical music does not connect with popular culture, it becomes a music of experts, unable to reflect and contribute meaningfully in the broad marketplace of developing ideas and cultural experimentation. When popular music has no connection and communication with the classical it becomes naive and superficial, untethered to its historical roots and broad cultural underpinnings. A healthy cultural milieu celebrates both.