American cellist Camden Shaw, a member of the Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet and a faculty member at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, will join the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as Senior Lecturer in Cello in Semester 1, 2027.

Shaw has performed more than 1,500 concerts with the Dover Quartet since its formation at Curtis in 2008. The ensemble won the gold medal and grand prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2010, followed by first prize and every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2013.

He has performed internationally with the quartet and collaborated with musicians including Emanuel Ax, Marc-André Hamelin, Leif-Ove Andsnes and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. His work also encompasses solo performances, concerto appearances and recordings.

Camden Shaw. Portrait © Roy Cox Photography

Shaw has taught at Curtis since 2020, working alongside his Dover Quartet colleagues. He will continue performing with the ensemble while teaching cello students in Sydney, offering individual lessons, studio classes and coaching for small ensembles.

Julian Smiles, the Conservatorium’s Senior Lecturer in Cello and Discipline Lead for Strings, welcomed the appointment, describing Shaw as an outstanding musician and educator with a strong international presence.

“Camden is no stranger to Australia, having toured for Musica Viva Australia with the Dover Quartet, and I had the very great pleasure of meeting and performing with him at that time.”

Camden’s ongoing membership with the Dover Quartet and his teaching role at Curtis will be of value to Conservatorium and its students, Smiles added. “In addition to being an outstanding musician and effective and engaging communicator, he’s a genuinely nice guy.”

Shaw says his teaching will cover not only technique and musical interpretation but also performance psychology, physical fitness and injury prevention, as well as the skills required for independent rehearsal and ensemble playing.

Camden Shaw and Julianne Lee of the Dover Quartet. Photo supplied

For Shaw, musical imagination and storytelling are central to performance.

“For me, musically, always searching for ways to sound like our internal ‘singer’ is of central importance.  Too often, our hands do things our singer – our musical imagination – would not. When we listen carefully to our singer, we always find more detail, more nuance, more beauty than we thought possible. I’m also passionate about live music basically being like storytelling, perhaps the most ancient human art – and that, although we should always aim for technical mastery, the most important thing is sharing a narrative experience with one another through sound.”  

A graduate of Curtis, where he studied with cellist Peter Wiley, Shaw has also worked with teachers including Norman Fischer, David Finckel and Steven Isserlis.

Shaw is familiar with Australia through previous tours with the Dover Quartet, including performances for Musica Viva Australia. He said he was excited to make Sydney his home and explore more of the continent.

“What a spectacular place! I’m beyond excited to get to call Sydney home,” he said, praising the city’s welcoming atmosphere.

Shaw will take up his appointment in Semester 1, 2027.