Cameron Johnston is a composer, sound artist, producer, and programmer. He works heavily in electronic music, producing works in Max as well as composing acoustic works. He is “media-agnostic” meaning that he uses whatever medium of art that fits the project the best. Recently, he has been producing more work with video, using Jitter in Max to create audio reactive visualizers for his own works and others’.

Music and sound has been a part of his life since he was eight years old when he joined the school band. He started on trumpet, eventually switched to tuba for his primary instrument, and picked up bass trombone for jazz band. Following his passion into high school, Cameron decided to start composing as a hobby. Cameron wrote mostly in a neo-romantic style during this period as well as writing arrangements of his favorite film, TV, and video game themes. This helped introduce Cameron to film scoring. While in high school, he scored a couple of student films for his film class.  During this time, he also managed to get many performances of his early works, including conducting the premiere of two of his wind band pieces (Identities, 2014 and Changed, 2015).

Cameron majored in Music Composition at California State University, Long Beach where he studied under Dr. Alan Shockley, Dr. Matin Herman, Dr. Adriana Verdié, Dr. Raymond Torres-Santos, and Dr. Alex Miller. Early in his college career, Cameron continued with his mostly neo-romantic style. His first big project was an orchestral album entitled The Long Road (2016) which was inspired by Joesph Campbell’s idea of the hero’s journey. Through this project he begin to experiment with electronic music through the use of DAWs. He also started to work in media composition. He joined the Video Game Development Association where he wrote music for a number of titles (Parasomnia, 2015, Echoes of Tikkun, 2016, and Horizon’s Pull 2016) as well as serving as Sound Lead for the organization. This experience furthered Cameron’s interest with electronic music. Also that year, he was elected as VP of Concerts and later President of the CSULB Composers’ Guild

Cameron found himself with a deep interest in collaboration with other disciplines. He wrote music for a number of choreographers. This is how he met long time collaborator Katelyn Sanchez which the two have worked on a number of projects together. (King George VI, 2019, Rootless Cosmopolitans, 2018, cell, 2018, Rabbits, 2017) Additionally, Cameron wrote for film and animation projects, several of which have premiered at film festivals around the world (Darkroom, 2017).

In 2016 Cameron joined the New Music Ensemble. This group redefined music for the composer. Through performing experimental music, Cameron reimagined the boundaries of what was possible with the art form. This experience was an awakening for him; allowing him to create far more experimental works and better define his style as a composer and a performer. This lead him to participate in a number of experimental performances, including developing sound installations for gallery spaces ([resilience] for Green Art Space, 2018, Los Angeles, 2019, Statue Music 1, 2017)

Later, Cameron joined the CSULB Laptop Ensemble. This is where he was introduced to the visual programming language Max. This experience opened the door to fully embracing electronics and sound as apart of his compositional process. With the help of director Dr. Herman, Cameron learned the program and developed a number of pieces for the ensemble over the years. Eventually, Cameron was asked to serve as Assistant Director of the ensemble where he was in charge of teaching Max as well as helping run rehearsals. It was through his experience with Laptop Ensemble that Cameron performed original works in New York City at LaMaMa Theatre (13 Fruitcakes, 2019. Byungkoo Ahn, dir.) and MISE-EN PLACE (Clock on a Chain, 2019) as well as performing at the SoundPedro festival from 2017-2019 and 2021. From Laptop Ensemble, Cameron formed his own project with a couple of friends called Pile of Wires. (pileofwires.com) This group has performed original works all throughout the Los Angeles Area.

During this time Cameron continued to improve his recording and producing experience. He studied with the founder of Synthlab, Rychard Cooper, where he learned electronic music, production, and modular synthesis. He was also hired as a Stage Tech for Daniel Recital Hall. It was through these opportunities that Cameron gained the bulk of his audio recording, mixing, and producing experience. 

In 2019, Cameron premiered his first opera, King George VI for his senior recital. This one act, five scene opera is based on the life of the British king during the abdication crisis, World War II and it’s aftermath. Choreographed by Katelyn Sanchez, and directed by Cindy Le with libretto by Cameron. This work featured a six piece vocal ensemble accompanied by a wind quintet, cello, violin, piano and two laptops. King George VI was a culmination of his work in collaboration,  theatre, and electronics. Cameron graduated with his Bachelor’s in Music Composition from CSULB in Spring 2020.

Cameron started his Master’s Degree in Music Composition with Interactive Media at CSULB in Fall of 2020. Here Cameron continued to expand his mastery of Max with his studies with Dr. Martin Herman. During this time, he served as director of the New Music Ensemble where he helped students develop pieces for virtual performances. During these performances, Cameron managed the livestream, mixing, and visual effects. Additionally, he was hired as the Podcast Editor for the school newspaper, the Daily49er. In November 2020, he released his second album last featuring a number of electronic works. In spring of 2021, Cameron worked as the Graduate Assistant for the Max class offered by the university.

In Fall of 2021, Cameron was hired by First Congregational Church of Los Angeles to help expand and run

Cameron premiered the first two acts of his opera _j0bs at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles in the Spring of 2022. He graduated with his masters’ degree in May of 2022. He is currently working at USC as an AV Tech and as a freelance AV and Livestream Technician. Personally, Cameron is expanding his programing portfolio, working mainly in Javascript, p5.js and arduino.