{"id":235128,"date":"2026-05-18T11:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235128\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:14:15","slug":"senior-spotlight-on-liberty-high-arts-standout-with-broadway-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235128\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior spotlight on Liberty High arts standout with Broadway dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cameron Dunham is looking forward to the day when one of his voice instructors tells him to come watch their Broadway play. Considering he\u2019s headed to the Manhattan School of Music, that day could arrive very soon.<\/p>\n

Dunham\u2019s Liberty High School arts career has touched nearly every program, as his resume spans from marching band, select band and orchestra to a cappella choir and barbershop quartet to theater.<\/p>\n

He chose the Manhattan School of Music because it\u2019s a small conservatory model whose faculty consists primarily of presently performing artists. The promise that he\u2019ll be able to go downtown and see his own teachers on Broadway was too good to pass up.<\/p>\n

Dunham, who is now on the vocal performance major track, said he\u2019s had too many influential teachers in his life so far to name them all, but gave a shoutout to the music departments at Northeast Middle School and Liberty High.<\/p>\n

LHS Choir Director Julie Wydrzynski said Dunham is a remarkable student, musician and person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a true privilege to witness the development of his musical gift first hand. Although he has consistently ranked at the top of his section for years, he maintains a rare humility and an infectious energy that makes him a joy to work with,\u201d Wydrzynski said in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cCam has a unique ability to lead while lifting others up. I have no doubt that the hard work he puts in now is just the beginning of a very successful journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student practices Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student practices Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student practices Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student claps his hands while he rehearses Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student practices Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student practices Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student claps his hands while he rehearses Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student practices Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 8<\/p>\n

Cameron Dunham, a Liberty High School student practices Friday, May 8, 2026, for a choir concert. Dunham has had an accomplished music career, including band, orchestra, choir and theater, and is headed to the Manhattan School of Music. (Monica Cabrera\/The Morning Call)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Dunham said he hopes that journey will one day include becoming a teacher himself. He\u2019s not sure yet what that would mean \u2014 as far as ages go, he envisions himself likely wanting to work with secondary age students or older.<\/p>\n

Arts instructors who work with younger ages are \u201cthe rocks that we need,\u201d Dunham said. While he credits his own early teachers for giving him his start, he sees his future more as working with older students or adults, potentially as a private vocal instructor.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Sanchez, the instructor who helped teach Dunham percussion and piano, and Gail Grossman, Dunham\u2019s voice coach, have been valued mentors, he said.<\/p>\n

Dunham has leveraged his percussion skills into roles in both band and orchestra. His many instruments include snare and bass drums, cymbals and marimba, but he said he\u2019s not yet confident on a full drum set.<\/p>\n

His experience with string instruments has been a little more mixed. Dunham said playing bass \u201cdidn\u2019t really work out,\u201d but he got his start at home learning the acoustic guitar, an instrument his mother and great uncle played.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been singing in productions since elementary school. The companies he\u2019s been a part of include both school-sponsored choirs and community institutions such as the Bel Canto Youth Chorus of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the Mosaic Youth Chorus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I learned my love for music and met wonderful people,\u201d Dunham said, adding an extra shoutout to Joy Hirokawa, the artistic and executive director of the Mosaic Youth Chorus who previously served as artistic director and founder of the Bel Canto Youth Chorus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think community choirs, even audition choirs, they just really helped me so much,\u201d Dunham said. \u201cThey helped me grow my love for music and my love for singing with other people is the big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Final curtain calls<\/p>\n

The May 8 choir concert was Dunham\u2019s last performance as a Liberty High student. Dunham said the end of his time as an LHS arts standout has been bittersweet, especially his final play.<\/p>\n

Dunham called his final LHS theater show, Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s \u201cCinderella,\u201d \u201cone of the first lasts of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just reminded me of how grateful I am to have this theater family at Liberty and how much fun the production was to put on this year,\u201d Dunham said.<\/p>\n

The role of the Prince Topher (aka Prince Charming) \u2014 for which he\u2019s nominated for a Freddy Award<\/a> \u2014 was fun, Dunham said. After having played several villains in his career, including an early performance as Scar in \u201cThe Lion King,\u201d he said playing a prince that is \u201cso kind and a little bit oblivious\u201d was an interesting change of pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to be a kind person,\u201d Dunham said.<\/p>\n

Dunham enrolled in Bethlehem Area schools after having spent his elementary school years at the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Bethlehem, he grew up going with his parents on day trips to Broadway.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving to the city\u2019s going to be a really big adjustment for me, but I\u2019m excited about all the cool opportunities there,\u201d Dunham said, \u201cand it\u2019s going to be an adjustment but \u2014 I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m ready, but I\u2019m going to try.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The Manhattan School of Music is more a small collection of buildings than a traditional college campus, but it includes student housing, Dunham said.<\/p>\n

Dunham\u2019s got a long list of \u201cI\u2019d love to see this show on Broadway one day\u201d plays, including \u201cHadestown\u201d and \u201cRagtime.\u201d His Manhattan School of Music classmates will all be musicians, including aspiring singers, instrumentalists, composers and conductors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a really intense, focused environment about music,\u201d Dunham said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Dunham is looking forward to the day when one of his voice instructors tells him to come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[36871,67,267,75,84,83,9,24,12,73978,63,3909,11495],"class_list":["post-235128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-bethlehem","tag-education","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-nyc","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}