From Steamboat Springs and Longmont, cellist-composer Cameron Smith began playing cello at eight, before starting lessons with the late Margaret Noble at 13. 

In 2017 he graduated from the University of Northern Colorado 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. He made his professional solo debut performing the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto in 2017 in a joint performance with the Consort, together with UNC's URSA Consort and 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 in 2021 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. In 2019 he made his Italian debut through the Cello Classics course in Tereglio, Italy.

Cameron was named a Fellow of the OAcademy Music Conservatory 2023 Cohort, and graduated with an Artist Diploma in Performance Leadership.  He 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 Music Competition and 2022 Brimhall Cello Concerto Competition, and enjoys teaching, serving as assistant coach to Andrea Gajic in the RCS VVC Summer String Course (2019).

Cameron is part of the award-winning Pisces Duo together with Mianoora Kosonen, where they champion pieces lost in time, as well as premiering works written by Mr. Smith. In their debut performance in September 2021, the Duo won the Gold Medal in Professional Composition category in the inaugural 2021 Trinity International Competition, and Bronze Medal in the 2021 King's Peak International Competition Winter Series.  His Adagio pour solo violine was commissioned and given the world premiere by violinist Elizabeth Gange, and the cello transcription won a Special Merit Prize from the Concorso "Serati Musicale" 2022 in Milan, Italy.  He recently was awarded a finalist laureate of the 2nd International Artists Competition in Vienna, Austria in the solo category.

Cameron has had the honor to have been in masterclasses of and worked with renowned artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Michal Shein, Augustin Hadelich, Claudio Bohórquez, Maestro Carlos M. Prieto, Vasily Petrenko, 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. Outside of performing and composing, Cameron is a dedicated lifelong learner across a number of areas of expertise, professional writer and published author with Vocal.media, and has taken courses on a variety of topics  through Harvard Extension School, Central Queensland University, Curtis Institute of Music, and Stanford Extension School.  Currently, Cameron is in the 2024 Cohort for the MBA in Arts and Innovation through the GLI.

Recently, Cameron has been named Finalist in the solo category of the 2nd International Artists Competition in Vienna, Laureate of the Servaas International Online Music Competition in the Cello category, and has been accepted into the competitive Soloist Promotion Program curated by CSM Galicia where he will study with Liina Leijala, and at the MARTHA Academy in Siciliy, where he will be mentored by Giovanni Sollima, Amadeo Cicchese, and Massimo Polidori. Cameron also teaches through IDAGIO Academy.