Cameron Renshaw, cello

Meet Cameron

Cameron performs on Show 443.

Cameron Renshaw (cello), 12, lives in Byron Center, Michigan. He has been playing cello for six years and currently studies with Pablo Mahave-Veglia at Grand Valley State University.

This past November, he soloed with the Cape Symphony Orchestra, delivering joyous and heartfelt performances in two subscription concerts and two Young People’s Concerts. At the age of eight, he made his orchestral solo debut with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. He has been featured numerous times on local and national media and in a performance on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” in 2020. As a first place or grand prize winner of numerous international competitions, he has had the honor of performing in some of the world’s greatest concert halls, such as Carnegie Hall, Mozarteum Salzburg, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Romanian Athenaeum.

He received the “First Great Award” in the Junior Division at both the fourth Vienna International Music Competition (2023) and the sixth Manhattan International Music Competition (2022). Other awards include Grand Prize Virtuoso International (two-time recipient of both the First Absolute [100/100] and Exceptional Young Talent Special Prizes) and First Place in the Camerata Artists International Competition 2020. Notable performances the following year include his solo appearance with the Kamarata Stradivarius Orchestra (Bucharest, Romania), Boccherini Cello Concerto in G Major with the Grand Valley State University Cello Ensemble, and a performance of popular electric guitar solos (Metallica and Black Sabbath) on his electric cello at Graceland Live in Memphis, TN. This summer, he will attend Morningside Music Bridge, an international, full scholarship-based program. In the summer of 2023, he attended the Heifetz Institute as a scholarship recipient. He is looking forward to a solo performance with the Holland Symphony Orchestra (Holland, MI) in their 2024/25 subscription series.

Cameron is passionate about promoting music education to the next generation, spreading the joy of music to school kids through outreach efforts and Young People’s Concerts throughout the country. In March 2023, he hosted and performed a benefit concert for his favorite school teacher, Sierra Zylstra, who suffers from Osteosarcoma, to a sold-out crowd at Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids.

Outside of music, Cameron enjoys tennis, making sushi, and fast rapping.