RICHMOND COUNTY - Richmond Senior High School senior student Cameron McDonald recently received a scholarship from the Methodist University Full-Tuition Music Scholarship fund. This stipend is ostensibly valued at up to $180,000 and serves to recognize Cameron for his superior skills in music.
In order to receive this scholarship, McDonald had to perform two songs from memory in a foreign language for the professors of the Music Department at Methodist University. McDonald chose to perform “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserable,” which he sang in English, and “Caro Mio Ben” by Tommaso Giordani, performed in Italian.
McDonald had to prove his abilities in singing through both performance and written tests. He stated that after he graduates from Richmond Senior High School he plans to attend Methodist University and major in music education while minoring in computer science. McDonald remains a bit unsure about where he would like for his career to ultimately take him but he‘s considering becoming a band/chorus teacher.
McDonald's passion for music has been persistent over the past seven years. Since he was first enrolled in band classes, taught initially by Curtis Swallow and later by Mike Ward, McDonald has had a steady growth in his indulgence in music. He played marching percussion in the Raider Marching Band before elevating to being a section leader his junior year, a tenor section leader during his 11th and 12th-grade years as a singing Raider, and then on to drum captain his senior year.
Not only is McDonald a capable singer and drummer but a pianist and guitarist as well; he has extensively studied and played each of these instruments for years.
Proof of McDonald’s devotion to the musical arts is seen is his Rookie of the Year award for outstanding achievements and growths as a Marching Raider.
Cameron McDonald’s passion for music resonates through him and he plans to continue pursuing any and all musical opportunities possible at Methodist University, from the marching band and the concert band to their chorale.
Finally, McDonald wanted to include a sentiment regarding his achievement:
“For those who read this article, and those who will read this statement, I would like you to understand that I did not get here on my own. Music is such an important part of my life and everyone’s lives every day. Without music, our lives, our homes, our culture and our schools would not be the same in how we conduct ourselves every day. As humble as all of my music teachers and family members are, I would not be where I am now without them. I have learned who I am, who I’m meant to be and what I will become because of my teachers and my family members.
“Unfortunately, children are losing the opportunity to learn and express themselves through music. I have noticed this terrible reality within our schools, our churches, our communities, our cities, our state and our country. As a musician, student, and future educator, I can only ask that everyone in our community please strive to keep music alive within the young minds of our nation.
“A leader at a music camp once told me, ‘Keep the heartbeat alive. The beat of a heart is the musical rhythm in all of us that we need to live every day.’
“I would like to thank everyone who has helped me along the way and to those who have congratulated me - it means a lot. I would like to conclude my statement with a poem by Shakespeare:
If music be the food of love
Sing on, sing on, sing on
‘Til I am filled with joy
For then my listening soul you move
To pleasures that can never cloy
Your eyes, your mein, your tongue declare
That you are music everywhere
Pleasures invade both eye and ear
So fierce, so fierce
The transports are, they wound
And all my senses feasted are
Though yet the treat is only sound
Sure I must perish by your charms
Unless you save me in your arms”
Editor's note: This article was contributed by L.A. Baker, a new addition to the talented team of writers at the Richmond Observer.
