CURRICULUM VITAE

Alastair Cameron

Date of Birth: 04/11/1979

Address: Orchard Cottage, New Street, Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire, GL17 0HS

E-mail: alastair@cameronmusic.co.uk

Mobile: 07578 046692

Academic qualifications

1999-2002 Bachelor of Music (Hons), Oxford Brookes University.

Work Interests

I am particularly interested in promoting people’s interest in and access to classical and contemporary music through my work as an instrumental teacher, through the development of the knowledge and skills of the ensembles that I work with and through the projects outlined in my work history below.

Music directing & conducting

I began conducting at university, where I had the opportunity to conduct the full range of the university’s ensembles. I directed a number of university performances including musicals, orchestral works, and one of my works (Allhakhum at Takathur, Requiem) performed by the university chamber choir and orchestra, which was broadcast on Radio 4.

After university I founded, together with two colleagues, the London Contemporary Music Group www.lcmg.org.uk, a chamber orchestra specialising in contemporary music. I was director from 2003 – 2008, during which time I conducted the orchestra for the world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s “A Loud Celebration”.

I was musical director of the Spring Park Choral Society from 2004-2009, an amateur choir based in Croydon, London, which performs a range of music from classical to pop.

I have also been a musical director for a number of local shows including several pantomimes, Bugsy Malone and Into the Woods (Sondheim).

Teaching

Having worked for a year in music publishing in London, I began teaching piano and clarinet with the Avalon Music School in Sevenoaks in 2004. I then set myself up independently in 2006, to teach pupils of all ages (ranging from 4 to 74 years) on piano and clarinet. In addition, I have more recently started teaching piano at Kemsing Primary School. Workshops I have run include two on music notation for the Spring Park Choral Society and a singing workshop at HMP Send (a women’s prison near Woking), for a project with the London Shakespeare Prison Workout to encourage the arts in prisons.

Current projects

Alongside my regular teaching I have several other projects I am currently working on. These include a recently created website selling recorded piano accompaniments for music students, which also has a music theory Blog at www.exam-accompaniments.co.uk. Some of the articles on this blog are the beginnings of a book I am working writing to explain the fundamentals of classical music, entitled ‘A Beginners Guide to Classical Music’.

I am also writing a great deal of music for a production music library (see: www.cameronmusic.co.uk) that is dedicated to music for film and TV, some of which has been used for a TV series on the Paramount Comedy channel.

Another project I am working on is a series of workshops/lectures, again based on the Beginners Guide to Classical Music, with the aim of explaining a little about classical music history, aesthetics and theory. There will be workshops for both adults and for children in schools.

Compositions

Alongside the compositions for film and TV mentioned above, I have written, and continue to write, concert pieces ranging from orchestral to solo works.

Some of my compositions include choral pieces for the Spring Park Choral Society, the Requiem mentioned above and other compositions and arrangements for various stage works including pantomime (Sevenoaks Entertainers) and theatre (The Little Voice Theatre Company).

Performing

I play the piano regularly at weddings, parties and in pubs, performing both classical music and jazz and I also give occasional classical recitals at the Ship Theatre and at St Luke’s Church in Sevenoaks.