GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Cameron Renshaw has been playing the cello since he was five-years-old. While he uses a smaller version of the instrument than adults, his cello, which he named Spotlight, is still almost as big as he is.

The nimble-fingered eight-year-old has been racking up music titles over the last few years - beating out other kids from all over the world.

“I love playing on the stage,” Renshaw said. “I do not feel nervous at all. All I feel like is I need to give that audience my all.”

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Initially, Renshaw’s mother, Tina, a cellist and occasional teacher, taught him how to read music and play the cello. He then started going to the Academy of Music in Grand Rapids.

While at the Academy, other people began to notice Renshaw’s talents.

“There aren’t a lot of kids like that," said Barbara Hendricks, owner of the academy. “It was pretty obvious early on. He played his first recital here. I stopped his mom afterwards and I said, ‘you have a prodigy.’"

Renshaw was inspired to start playing after watching his mother playing.

“It was how well she played and how much I realized she practiced,” he said.

Renshaw also likes that he’s able to spend time with his mom.

Hendricks started the academy in 2003. She said she’s probably seen thousands of kids go through her school since then. But Renshaw is different.

“I mean if you’re a musician and you’ve taught a ton of kids, you can see it immediately. He’s just unique,'' she said.

"The way he can hear sounds and reproduce them, but then it’s combined with that great personality. He just loves performing.”

Renshaw’s mother, Tina, currently teaches Renshaw along with Grand Valley State University professor, Pablo Mahave-Veglia.

“He is a great talent and a personality to match,” said Mahave-Veglia.

Renshaw’s mother also noticed early on that he had an aptitude for the cello, and that ability has grown over the last three years.

“He’s working on music that I worked on in college and high school,” she said. “And he’s eight-years-old and I majored in music.”

The third grader at Marshall Elementary School in Byron Center, has won multiple national and international competitions. That’s gotten him to Carnegie Hall five times, and to Russia to play with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

But Renshaw said his favorite place to play was at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

“The hall sounded really good, all the other players were really nice, and I also liked how the hall was designed,” Renshaw said.

But in order to get to Carnegie Hall, or Concertgebouw, or Russia, you have to practice.

Renshaw said he practices for two hours a day during weekdays and three hours a day on the weekends. But he still tries to find time for his other passions - like LEGOs.

“So what I do, I take this big, fat pad with like a thousand, five pieces. I build a sculpture, I show it off for like a couple weeks, then I just destroy the sculpture,” Renshaw said giggling, with a big smile taking over his entire face.

He also loves to read, mostly fantasy like Harry Potter and Five Kingdoms series.

“Half of the time that we spend in the day that isn’t cello, I spend reading," he said.

Renshaw is up for another competition that’s going on right now. He won first place at the Camerata International Artists Competition and as a result performed in a a winner’s recital at Merkin Hall in New York City.

However, the grand prizes for that competition (Grand, Gold, and Silver) have not been awarded yet. The judges choose those prizes based on auditions, audience favorites, and You Tube likes. Voting ends on Feb. 27.

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