Cameron Smith (b. 1994), a native of Longmont, Colorado, is a rising cellist-composer of the modern day. Falling in love with the cello after witnessing a demonstration of it at school, he started playing at eight and began lessons with the late Margaret Noble at age 13. In 2009 he was a finalist in the Longmont Symphony Orchestra Young Ar- tist Competition, and in 2010 was the recipient of the Wednesday Music Club Scholarship competition. In 2011, he was one of the first two cellists to ever represent Silver Creek High School as assistant principal of the Colorado All-State Philharmonic Orchestra, and was named principal cellist in the 2012 inaugural Combined League Honors Orchestra. In addition, he also represented Silver Creek at the 2012 Western States Honors Orchestra Festival in Greeley, Colorado. He was principal cellist of the Walt Disney Studios Invitational Orchestral Workshop in 2011 and had the opportunity next year in 2012 performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major with the Silver Creek Symphony Orchestra.

Cameron graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2017 with a Bachelor of Music in cello performance, with the highest Latin honors of summa cum laude studying under Gal Faganel, and was inducted into the Golden Key International Honors Society. While studying at UNC, Cameron was part of the award-winning UNC Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, the latter of which was awarded the title Best U.S. Collegiate Orchestra by Downbeat Magazine in 2013, during his first year of undergraduate study. He also one of the original cellists to found the university’s first Baroque orchestra and chorus, UNC’s Ursa Consort, and made his professional solo de- but performing the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto in 2017 in a joint performance with the Consort, together with Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Baroque Orchestra.

In July 2020 he graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a Master of Music in cello performance under the tutelage of Alison Wells, and recently he received his Master of Arts in chamber music and secondary study composition, studying with Alison Wells and Stuart MacRae, respectively. During his time at the RCS, Cameron has performed alongside the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Bernstein’s Mass, May 2018); selected for the BBC SSO and RSNO mentoring schemes in the 2019 and 2020 seasons; performed alongside the Scottish Ensemble in the Ensemble’s Side-by-Side Project (2019), and has led, and been a part of, the RCS Symphony, Chamber Orchestra, Opera, and Concerto Orchestra projects, which included performing the U.K. premiere of the opera Dead Man Walking. In 2018 he was the cellist of the Zephyr Quartet, who represented RCS in the finals of the Cavatina Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition. He was twice named Emergent Artist at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in 2016 and 2018, performing Hindemith’s Op. 25 No. 3 and Ginastera’s Pampeana No. 2 rhapsodie for cello and
piano Op. 21, respectively. He was part of the ensembles that were twice selected to perform in the Rosin International Chamber Music Festival, playing Shostakovich’s Quartet No.6 in the Brodsky Quartet’s 2018 Shostakovich cycle, and Beethoven’s Op. 95 in the Brodsky Quartet’s 2019 Beethoven cycle. In 2019 he was invited to the Cantilena Chamber Music Festival, where he reprised his role in Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto in G Minor. Also in 2019 he attended the CelloClassics course in Tereglio, Italy, studying with Sebastian Comberti, Raphael Wallfisch, and Roel Dieltiens, and is looking forward to its next season, postponed to 2022.

Cameron has appeared on BBC Radio 3, STV and ITV, and in the Herald as well as the Glasgow Times, co-leading the BBC Radio 3 International Cello Festival, and served as one of the first lead Ambassadors to Nicola Benedetti’s Benedetti Foundation, performing with Benedetti in the Glasgow launch concert and sessions that January, and again in the Dundee sessions later that March. He was awarded Second Prize in Chamber Music together with pianist Jia Ning Ng at the North International Music Competition 2020 Autumn Series. He is part of the Nevis Ensemble, Scotland’s Street Orchestra, which aims to bring classical music outside of the concert hall and make it much more accessible to the general public in making music in uncommon and unique areas, and especially more accessible for differently-abled youths, senior citizens, and areas where people do not have access to classical music. He has served on three tours with Nevis, and is humbled to have been part of Nevis’ 2021 TED Tour, and performed at the COP26 pre-summit, playing for audience members such as Rosamund Adoo- Kissi Debrah and Emma Watson. The Ensemble was recently on the shortlist for the 2021 Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award. In addition to performance, he has been an adjudicator for competitions, such as the 2019 Merchiston International School Mu- sic Competition, and enjoys teaching, serving as assistant coach to Andrea Gajic in the RCS VVC Summer String Course (2019).

Cameron is part of the Pisces Duo, together with pianist Mianoora Kosonen, having recently made their professional debut in September 2021 with the world and U.K. premiere of Cameron’s Rhapsode de Temps, Op. 4 (2021), and have recently been awarded the Bronze Medal for the Professional Ensemble category in the 2021 Winter Series of the King’s Peak International Music Competition. Cameron has also very recently been awarded the Gold Medal in the Professional Composition category in the inaugural iteration of the Trinity International Music Competition for his piece of Rhapsode de Temps.

Cameron has had the honor to have been in masterclasses of and worked with renowned artists such as Raphael Wallfisch, Sebastian Comberti, Roel Dieltiens, Antonio Menêses, Alison Wells, the Brodsky Quartet, David Dolan four times, Peter Salaff, Ida Mercer, Robert Irvine, Andrea Gajic, Scott Mitchell, Matt Haimovitz,
Russell Guyver, Barbara Thiem, Daniel Rothmuller, Gregory Sauer, Scott Klukdahl, Adrianna Castillo, and Silver Ainomaë. His postgraduate studies have been graciously supported by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Scholarship Trust, and the Ian McGlashan Scholarship. Currently, he is the composer and scorer for the upcoming documentary film The Sonic Warrior, due to be premiering in 2022.