Ormonde Waters is regarded as one of the international community's finest Irish musicians. Performing on the concertina, uilleann pipes, warpipes, tin whistles and low whistle, he has played internationally both solo and with various groups at festivals, schools and private functions and has been involved with over a dozen recording projects to date with artists such as "Fling" and Kavisha Mazzella.

Career highlights include playing before 10,000 for the opening of the Festival of Perth in 1979 as part of WA's 150th anniversary celebrations, the launch of the "Greenpeace II" at the Isle of Dogs (1989), the international premier of "The Field" in London (1990) and numerous festivals including the Fleadh Nua in Ennis (Ireland, 1989), Jersey International Festival (1990), Carrigaholt (Ireland 1996), Wehrheim Festival (Germany, 1996) and Waihi Bush Festival (New Zealand, 1998).

He also toured England and Ireland for six months in 1990 with the Age Exchange Theatre Company performing in their play "Across the Irish Sea". With the "Fling" he has appeared at every major Australian festival and in 1997 toured for four weeks in China and Singapore. In 1998 he toured with "Fling" for seven weeks to Singapore, Ireland and the UK culminating in a performance before 20,000 at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival, and followed by a six week tour of seven countries in Asia. He also arranged the pipe music for the Fremantle Dockers Centenary football match and conducted the pipe bands to a crowd of 25,000.

Ormonde made a significant contribution to WA Irish music history when he researched the life of John Wayland - the Founder of the Cork Pipers' Club - who migrated to WA in 1912. He formed the John Wayland Society to raise funds for a headstone for Wayland's grave, published his research in "The Traditional Musicianer", Australia's first Irish music publication, and organised an Irish Music festival in Geraldton to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Wayland's death, when the new headstone was unveiled.

Ormonde holds a Bachelor of Economics with Honours in Industrial Relations from UWA (1985) and is currently studying Conservation Biology and Molecular Biology at Murdoch University. He is the winner of the 2000 Emrys Grimley Memorial Prize in Biological Sciences, one of the recipients of the Vice-Chancellor's Commendation for Academic Excellence in 2000 and 2001, and winner of the 2002 AMGEN prize for Biotechnology.