Cameron MacIntosh

Cameron MacIntosh was born in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Raised in New Jersey. Cam first picked up the sticks at age 9. After taking formal lessons with various teachers in the Jersey area, he heard the great Joe Morello of the Dave Brubeck quartet at age 11. Following an audition, Cameron because the youngest ever student of Morello’s. Joe served as an invaluable role as a teacher and mentor for the next three years. Whether it be working on George Lawrence Stone snare drum exercises or telling stories about times spent with Buddy Rich, Papa Jo Jones, or Frank Sinatra, it was undoubtedly Morello’s perfectly balanced yet always burning enthusiasm and seriousness for the instrument that instilled the drum bug in Cam.

When in high school, MacIntosh enrolled as a student to the Manhattan School of Music precollege division, where his ensemble won the 2014 Downbeat award for “Best Precollege Combo.” As a student of the Jazz House Kids program based in Montclair (under the direction of the Artistic Director, Christian McBride and founder Melissa Walker) Cameron participated in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Annual Essentially Ellington competition where he won “Outstanding Soloist” & “Outstanding Rhythm Section” awards. While with Jazz House, Cam played with icons such as McBride, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy Heath, Al Jarreau, and David Sanborn. During this time as well, he was selected as a member of the 2012 and 2014 GRAMMY Jazz Ensembles, where he recorded at Capitol Records in Los Angeles and played with Chick Corea & Anthony Hamilton, and participated in their Grammy Cultural exchange program in New York City along with a string quartet from China. Cameron was also a three - year member of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, where he toured Japan twice in addition to the west coast and Canada, and got to play with Ambrose Akinmusire and Joe Lovano. He was also selected as a 2015 YoungArts Finalist, a member of the Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony and Vail Jazz Workshop, where he worked with the great Lewis Nash.

Cameron is now a student at The Juilliard School in New York directed by the iconic Wynton Marsalis, and is a private student of Kenny Washington and Billy Drummond and is the recipient of the Irving Berlin scholarship. He has performed at various venues in New York and abroad, including Dizzys Club Coca Cola, Smoke, the Jazz Standard, Blue Note, Shapeshifter Lab, Fat Cat, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Yoshis, and with musicians including Freddie Hendrix, Charlie Hunter, Ned Goold, and the Kyle Athayde Dance Party, among others.

In the spring of 2016, Cameron was selected to play for a week at the 41st Annual Bern Jazz Festival in Bern Switzerland. He was also invited to play in Moscow for four days at the Future of Jazz Festival directed by Igor Butman this past October, which included performances at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and various clubs. Cam is currently in his third year at Juilliard and residing in Manhattan, New York. Show less