• Robert Birman, Executive Director, Santa Barbara Symphony-- "The Santa Barbara Symphony concerts featuring the photochoreography of James Westwater rank as our second best ticket draw of all time (the first was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). For our concerts with Westwater, we sold $23,000 worth of tickets at out theatre box office from walk-up patrons alone. Our audiences are unanimous in their appreciation of his exquisite art and stunning choreography to the music. In past seasons, the Symphony has performed programs that featured 'orchestra and film,' 'orchestra and dance' and 'orchestra and visual images.' My most pleasant surprise with Westwater's photochoreography was that no one has expressed the typical concern that the visual stimulus detracted from the music (as was the case in several of our prior attempts). By all accounts, our concerts with James Westwater were a huge success! Westwater is a pleasant person to work with and provided the Symphony with very helpful materials in advance of our concerts. We look forward to having him return with more of his productions soon."

• Akron Beacon Journal-- Westwater's piece was "the most distinguished portion" of the Cleveland Orchestra program. "Absolutely breathtaking... Westwater is obviously a master with the camera, and his scenes are perfectly mirrored by" the composer's "rugged and proudly lyrical music."

• Steven Ovitsky, V. P. & Exec. Dir., Milwaukee Symphony-- "Bravo for Vanishing Forest! [Westwater's] intensely rich photographs of the rainforest combined with Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending made a sight and sound experience of the deepest beauty... The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra received raves for our 'Song of the Rainforest' concerts, and the world premiere of Vanishing Forest was the highlight for most of the audience. "We are often told that we live in a visual society and that symphony orchestras need to add visual elements to concerts. When the visuals are as artfully created and sensitively set to the music as [Westwater's] are there will always be a place for them at MSO concerts."

• Pepe Romero-- "I was deeply moved by the performance of James Westwater. It uplifted my spirit. I felt surrounded by beauty on a level that surpassed the senses, becoming a truly spiritual experience. I felt loved by God and Nature and in complete communion with both. "I wish and hope that his work can be experienced by multitudes of people, for it is through dedicated artists such as James Westwater that the earth can become a better place to live."

• San Antonio Light-- The composer's "musical imagery was made even more eloquent through the stunning color photography of James Westwater."

• The Post-Courier, Charleston, SC-- "But surely the highlight of an otherwise superlative program was a three-screen, multiple projection spectacle of imaginative visualization by... James Westwater... He illuminated and helped reevaluate" the composer's piece "in ways that were both charming and uncanny, and utterly right. To say that this" Charleston Symphony "performance of" the score "was fully, perhaps even definitively, worthy of Westwater's photography is one of the highest forms of praise for an often heart-melting multimedia experience."

• The Birmingham News-- "stunning... spectacular... glorious..."

• The Tulsa World-- Westwater's "work displayed an artist's eye, a musician's ear, and a poet's feeling."

• Robert Alan Reed, Executive Director, Tulsa Philharmonic-- "One of the highlights of the... season will surely be the performance that featured the photochoreography of James Westwater. Not only did it bring the largest audiences to the masterworks series, it gave our audience members a fresh perspective on some of the most popular orchestral literature. The evening was every bit a 'satisfying concert experience.' It is great working with [Westwater]. I am sure our paths with cross many times in the future."

• The Sacramento Bee-- "spectacular sights and sounds." The composer's "music, Westwater's photos blended to perfection... The pictures Westwater was inspired to make and put together for the music worked in perfect accord with it. That's why he richly deserves his bows; his sensitivity and artistry were at the heart of the success of the evening..."

• The Cincinnati Enquirer-- In concert with Erich Kunzel and The Cincinnati Pops, Westwater's photochoreography was "a gorgeous wide-angle mirror of America... a stunner."

• Uri Barnea, Music Director, Billings Symphony & Chorale-- "Once again you have proven that sight and sound, when created and combined in a meaningful way, can make a tremendous impact on the listener. The choice of subject in your photos, the colors, lights and shades, the humor, the pain, and the music you have selected to accompany it--all have contributed to one of our most successful and best attended concerts."

• The Billings Gazette-- "spectacular... awe inspiring... Westwater creates what he calls 'music for the eyes,' combining sublime images with the music in ways that are... always arresting... The pictures are about the music and the music enriches the pictures; neither is an afterthought to the other."

• Marcel Marceau-- "beautiful!"

• The Charlotte Observer-- "The merging of sound and image was exquisite."

• News & Record-- "symphony melds music, art ... The Greensboro Symphony Orchestra's outstanding playing coupled with the photographs of James Westwater are a match made in heaven."

• Peter Nero-- Westwater's photochoreography is "a work for our time."

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• Murry Sidlin-- "magnificently creative and the best artistic achievement of its kind I have ever personally witnessed... superb... an unqualified success and a profoundly moving experience for everyone."

• Arizona Daily Star-- Westwater joins images and music "with unusual intelligence, sensitivity and verve."

• The Bulletin, Bend, OR-- "a capacity crowd" witnessed "James Westwater's engaging, harmonious 'photochoreography'" in performance with the Bend Festival Orchestra. ... The concert was a "masterpiece... a perfect performance."

• The Nashville Banner-- "Westwater is surely a poet who uses his camera for a pen..." His work "filled the eye and the soul with joy..."

• The Tennessean-- "stunning... beautiful often achingly, heartbreakingly, breathtakingly beautiful."

• Barry Auman, Executive Director, Reno Philharmonic-- "The concert quickly sold out with ... a waiting list which grew to six-pages long. The audience reaction has been very positive. We found you to be one of the most congenial guest artists to visit and perform with the orchestra. You certainly are thorough and things seem to go smoothly because of your experience in producing these programs."

• The Post-Standard, Syracuse--"With the stage lights dimmed, a trio of screens was lowered. Pictures... faded into and out of view... at all times, the visual reflected the score and honored the rhythmic pulse ... Don't be mistaken ... this was not a travelogue with music. It was a thorough re-creation of the score by an artist who grasps" the composer's "music as firmly as did the conductor. "The concept of photochoreography is very exciting ..." especially "photochoreography from the magnificent vision of James Westwater."

• Edward Polochick, Dir., Baltimore Symphony Chorus, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Peabody Conservatory Orchestra & Chorus-- "phenomenal!"

• Fran Goldman, Executive Director, Jackson Symphony-- "The photography was absolutely spectacular and the way it blended with the music was artistic, sensitive and powerful. ... I believe that this particular program... may have gone a long way toward making classical music more relevant and accessible to our audience."

• Barry Horn, Executive Director, Valley Symphony Orchestra, McAllen TX-- At Westwater's concert with the orchestra "I noticed probably a 60% increase in faces 30-55 years of age. A number of audience members remarked that they did not know a symphony concert could be so enjoyable."

• The Buffalo News-- "Fine Finale: photos add zest to multi-media concert -- It wasn't only the sell-out house that stamped 'Success' on this final concert in the new Sight, Sound & Symphony series" of the Buffalo Philharmonic. "It was the attitude of the huge crowd in the afterglow of this multimedia concert, which ended with" the composer's piece, "adorned with spectacularly beautiful color photo projections of scenes from rural life on three huge screens suspended above the orchestra... Departees quietly commented about the 'restful satisfaction,' 'beauty of sight and sound' and the 'way the music and photographs complemented each other.' Amen to all the above! Westwater's photographs were beautifully composed, captured the colors of the countryside with a glowing richness and were projected onto three screens with a remarkably uniform, sharp focus that I've never seen surpassed. His variety of means for changing the projections were exceptionally smooth and subtle."

• The Californian, Bakersfield-- Westwater "understands" the composer's "constructions very well: his" images "follow the same paths between main thematic ideas and transitional material to tell his own story. Fortunately, Westwater never commits the unforgivable -- reducing" the composer's "score to mere background music. Instead, a kind of synergy is created with juxtaposition of" images "and music often with profound emotional effect."

• Maine Sunday Telegram-- "a spectacle in sound and light..." a "sensual feast ... sumptuous... not to be missed... the audience clearly loved it."

• School Teacher in Portland, Maine-- "Wow!  The power of music and photography!  We left the concert hall as changed people, enriched!  It was a life changing experience.  Thank you, thank you!  Aaron Copland, Agnes DeMille and Martha Graham are smiling and pleased.  Every second we had wonderful instruments to listen to and beautiful photos to see.  What an aesthetic experience!  We hope the PSO and James Westwater will team up again in the future."