O'Connor, fresh from a doctorate from the University Southern California, is an international guitar competition winner with a growing concert career.
by Krystal Zhang
editor: Pernell Harris
Six weeks ago, Cameron O'Connor came from Los Angeles to teach guitar at Oregon State University. He plans to build a guitar program here and has received lots of praise.
 |
| Cameron O'Connor OSU Photo |
“In a national search for a new faculty member in guitar, Cameron O’ Connor was the top choice,” Lee Ann Garrison said.
Garrison is director of the School of Arts and Communication. She also is O’Connor’s boss. She thinks he is an exceptional guitarist, an ambitious performer and a dedicated guitar teacher.
The School of Arts and Communication hopes the guitar program will become nationally recognized as a center of excellence at OSU. He will build it from scratch.
O’Connor’s main reason for becoming an instructor at OSU is to teach people about guitar.
“I believe he has the drive, the network, and a depth of talent to make the guitar program at OSU very successful, and help establish Corvallis as a center of excellence for classical guitar in the Pacific Northwest,” Jon Sharp said.
Sharp is a classical guitar teacher and he holds a Masters Degree in Music from San Jose State University. He also is president of the Corvallis Guitar Society. He recommended O’Connor to be a guitar instructor at OSU. He met O’Connor at the Summer Arts Program at California State University Fresno in 2009, where they were in a music workshop with other classical guitarists and flute players. They got to play some great music, perform almost every day in master classes for invited international guitar maestros, such as Elliot Fisk and Jason Vieaux, and play in a concert at the end of the two week session.
lan Matthew Sedgewick is taking private guitar lessons with O’Connor’s. O’Connor has not only helped Sedgewick improve leaps and bounds already, but he is putting Sedgewick on the path to making his own music. “From the time I spent with him,” Sedgewick said,” I can tell he is a genuine person.”
Chandra Amalie Char is from O’Connor’s guitar class at OSU. Char thinks O’Connor is a brilliant guitarist who, despite his talent, never talks about how talented, creative, and inquisitive he is. He plays the guitar with great passion. When he performs he is not just playing notes, but also telling a story as well. He paints a portrait of the composition through his performance.
“With every note he plays you can hear the emotions of the composer as it was intended to be played,” Char said.
“With every note he plays you can hear the emotions of the composer as it was intended to be played,” Char said.
O’Connor came from Los Angeles where he lived near Chinatown. He likes to interact with people who from other cultures.
O’Connor started to play guitar when he was 5 years old. At 15, he started teaching guitar.
He advanced his skill as a student at California State University Northridge, The Juilliard School and the University of Southern California.
O’Connor has an older brother, who is currently a pharmacist at a hospital in Auburn, Calif.. Growing up, Zane was much better than Cameron in sports, so he picked up the guitar and excelled.
O’Connor is not only an instructor. He is a busy performer. On Nov. 5, he played in the Pickford Concert Series in L.A.. On Dec. 3, he will play in the OSU/Mirabella Concert Series in Portland, Ore. On Dec. 9, he will play with his group, “ensemble demitasse,” in a duo concert.
O’Connor has his own ideas about music and guitar. Currently, students must buy their own guitars to take his class, but O’Connor is trying to build a collection of loaner guitars.
Although guitar is a new program at OSU, O’Connor is confident that he can improve it and make it nationally recognized as a center of excellence.
He plays every day. “I get a headache and feel uncomfortable if I miss one day and do not play guitar,” O’Connor said.
Corvallis is a small town, and much different than L.A. For one, Corvallis is very white. This is a new experience to O’Connor.
Everyone knows what a guitar is, but not everybody knows how guitar works in different styles of music, such as, Rock, Blues, and jazz. O’Connor is very good at many styles of guitar, but specializes in classical music.
Cameron O’ Connor teaches guitar classes Tuesday and Thursday at 5 p.m. and Wednesday at 6 p.m.. He teaches music theory on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 11 a.m.
O’Connor has guitar class every term. For more information, please visit Oregon State University catalog website page.
Comments
Post a Comment