About

Cameron Tyler Walters is a composer and saxophonist who draws ideas from many different musical traditions, including the rebelliousness of rock and heavy metal, the freedom of bluegrass and jazz, and the introspectiveness of composers like LaMonte Young and Ben Johnston. Cameron writes music that is introspective, thought provoking, and nostalgic. He hails from, and is currently based in, the piedmont of North Carolina.

Cameron’s main motivation to write music comes from his experiences as a listener; listening to music has been very important in his life since its inception. Listening to music can cause us to feel joyous or mournful, melancholy or stoic. Cameron endeavors to make his listeners feel these things and so much more. Cameron thinks of himself as a listener of his own music.

Cameron’s music explores his personal connections and how they shape himself as well as his understanding of the world; his string quartet, the things i tell myself, explores the way in which our ideas about the world around us affect our daily lives and how those ideas can change from day to day. Through his music, Cameron navigates through the complexities that come with being human. Using his personal experiences with the duality of life, he endeavors to create soundscapes that mimic the juxtaposition of the stringent and the absurd. Cameron’s music does this in different ways, often using specific notation coupled with open notation or improvisation.

Many of Cameron’s most formative experiences came when he was studying for his undergraduate degree at Gardner-Webb University. As an active member of the school’s SCI chapter he composed and performed much new music and organized many of the new music concerts. Through this Cameron became very fond of working with other composers to create better music together. During this time he also performed with a punk band playing in local venues as well as houses, basements, and abandoned buildings. His experiences playing in this band taught Cameron the importance of having fun through music, and in this context it was usually more important than playing the right notes.

Cameron’s experiences as a father also shape his music, particularly in how relationships grow and change with age. Cameron is still growing as a composer and his ideas about music are always evolving. He is interested in finding new ways to bring more people, young and old, into broader genres and more varieties of music. He is currently in the process of forming his own ensemble and exploring more ways to give back to his community through music and education.

Cameron is currently enrolled in the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where he has studied composition with Sky Macklay and Felipe Lara