Cameron Monteath

I met Cameron a couple of years ago. He’s a friendly, interesting, and extremely talented young lad. I’m very lucky that I’ve had the chance to listen to some of his compositions and extra pleased he accepted my invitation to compose a piece of music especially for the Bellamys at Five exhibition.

Introducing Cameron

My name is Cameron Monteath.  I have just turned 12 years old and I am in year 7 at Dunedin North Intermediate.  I think my best subject at school is spelling, then writing, then mathematics…

I have been composing for 4 ½ years, and I have recently purchased a composing program called Sibelius.  In my spare time I love, well, composing!  I like many composers, but I especially like Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Handel and Mendelssohn.

I was born 15 weeks early, and when I was in the incubator, Mum and Dad played classical music to me.  Sometimes I wonder if that’s why I love classical music so much.

My proudest moment in my musical career is when the Sinfonia Academy performed my Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major at one of their concerts last year.  I now play the violin in this orchestra, and I also play in a recorder ensemble, in a couple of other orchestra’s including my school orchestra.  At school, we are currently learning to play another of my compositions.  I play the piano, oboe, violin, and the descant and treble recorders.  I can also play a little bit of trumpet.

I have chosen to compose a piece of music to the poem, “A Rainy Morning”.  I am very excited to have been given this opportunity and hope I can do the poem justice.

Cameron need not have any fears about his composition! He delivered his work to me last night and it is stunning! He’s paid such close attention to the poem and created the most wonderful musical picture. I’m sure Ted Kooser will be impressed. We’ll be playing Cameron’s composition at the opening of Bellamys at Five, during the exhibition weeks,  and making it available on You Tube after the exhibition.