From vocal coach to recording artist: Cameron Richardson launches debut single 'The Other Side of Blue'

For years, Cameron Richardson has been the quiet force behind some of the most powerful voices on stage – the coach trusted by leading performers to fine-tune, rebuild, and ultimately unlock their full vocal potential. From his Lincolnshire base, Richardson has built a global reputation for an intensely diagnostic, almost surgical approach to vocal training, helping West End and Broadway stars sustain demanding roles night after night, while mentoring the next generation of musical theatre talent with the same precision and care.

It’s a journey shaped by world-class credentials. Trained at The Juilliard School, Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, Richardson first made his mark as a performer, appearing at iconic venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Centre, and the Royal Festival Hall.

Alongside award-winning recordings and teaching posts at institutions such as New York University, he has become one of the industry’s most sought-after vocal mentors – a status cemented by an Outstanding Contribution to Music Education honour from Carnegie Hall.

Today, as Head of the Musical Theatre programme at Trinity College, Cambridge and founder of a worldwide coaching network, Richardson continues to shape elite performers with his signature blend of technical mastery and emotional intelligence. But now, after years spent refining other people’s voices, he’s stepping into the spotlight himself.

His debut single, The Other Side Of Blue, marks a bold new chapter – a sophisticated, emotionally rich pop track that introduces Richardson not just as the voice behind the stars, but as an artist in his own right. 

Richardson opens up about his transition from coaching top performers to becoming a recording artist, and the inspiration behind his debut single, The Other Side of Blue.

What first drew you to music, and when did you realise this would be your life’s work?

I wouldn’t say there was a specific moment of realisation. It was more an assumption I made from a very early age that this was where I’d head. My first musical steps were at three, when I asked my parents if I could take guitar lessons. We went to the local music shop in Grimsby, where I grew up. 

They thought I was far too young, but my mum is great at persuading people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. I was allowed to sit and play the guitar, and they asked if I could play back what they played – apparently, I could! So they let me start lessons at three.

That wasn’t the instrument I stayed with. I tried cello, flute, and clarinet, but piano and voice were where I found my most natural expression. I started piano at six in primary school, and sang in school choirs. There were bonuses too – like skipping PE on Tuesdays because I was in choir. Piano and singing have been central to my life. I always knew I wanted to work in music, though the specifics evolved. Initially, I thought I’d become a concert pianist, playing classical repertoire, which my degrees at Juilliard and the Royal Academy focused on.

Since then, I realised I wanted more control over what I created. I wanted to move beyond faithfully performing others’ work and into the creation process. Over a few years, I found a path that blends pop sensibility with my classical background, which is where I am now. I’ve always wanted a music career, but exactly how I’d express that was up for grabs for a long time.

You’ve built a career spanning education, performance, and now songwriting. Was that a deliberate choice or a natural evolution?

What I do now is a mix of many things. I’ve performed a lot, but much of my day-to-day life is as a coach to Broadway singers, which happened by chance. At Juilliard, I was asked to play piano for a musical theatre class taught by a legendary New York Broadway voice teacher. 

I was the dorky British kid in the corner, just playing whatever she asked. I ended up being her pianist for private lessons and subbing for her while she was away, which let me build my own cohort of students.

Because of my singing training, I could prepare them thoroughly for auditions. My direct, no-nonsense teaching approach resonated with students, and they got the roles they auditioned for. I then gave masterclasses in L.A. for screen actors – people working with Netflix, Nickelodeon, and Amazon Prime. It was all chance, really.

During Covid, after my dad passed, I returned to the UK. Fortuitously, lessons went online, which allowed me to maintain my US teaching studio. Despite the early-morning sessions, I could serve students globally, which actually expanded the business. 

I took on a few teachers to help manage demand, delegating less specialised work, and that became The Vocal Coaches. We now have students and teachers worldwide, ranging from beginners to high-profile Broadway, theatre, Hollywood, and pop artists. Most of this growth has been over the last six or seven years.

You’ve been praised for an extremely diagnostic approach to vocal training. What’s unique about your style?

My teaching is solutions-based and grounded in science. I grew up with lots of teachers; some methods resonated, some didn’t. At 22, I met a teacher who explained exactly why certain things sounded as they did, showing diagrams and anatomy. That was fascinating. 

My approach is more surgical than “coachy” – focused on how the voice works rather than just performance. Many of my students perform eight Broadway shows a week, so grounded technique is crucial to prevent vocal fatigue. It’s pragmatic: how do I help them deliver consistently?

What common questions or concerns come up with performers doing multiple shows a week?

There are probably five or six things we see on a daily basis. It can be stuff like, “I feel I’m losing the top of my range,” especially with younger students. Often, people who’ve grown up singing in Nickelodeon shows, doing cartoon voice-overs and things like that, the house style is that you sing with quite a lot of chest voice, which is a thicker function of the vocal folds. That can mean that when you sing higher into the head voice, it’s very breathy and underpowered.

Or when they move up through the voice, there’s a massive crack in the middle – a big build-up of tension as they get higher, then a big crack, and then an almost non-existent head voice, which is where the vocal folds are really thin. If you want to grow into adult roles as a musical theatre singer, smoothing over that break is one of the most important things you have to be able to do. That’s something we hear absolutely every day.

Another common one is, “My voice gets tired really quickly.” That can be for loads of reasons. Often it’s to do with airflow – too much air moving through the vocal folds – or some kind of restriction that’s creating extra pressure on the folds, such as tension in the tongue root or something like that. Those things come up all the time.

Shifting to your musical influences, which vocalists impress you technically?

I admire old-school divas: Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Beverly Knight – singers with solid technique who can do anything. More modern examples include Teddy Swims, whose sound is deeply resonant and connected to the body, and Renee Rapp, who blends musical theatre polish with pop sensibility. Ariana Grande is another example. I’m drawn to virtuosity and singers whose technique brings soul and gravitas.

You recently released your debut single The Other Side of Blue. What inspired this song?

The song operates on two levels. As I mentioned earlier, we lost my dad at the beginning of Covid, and when I started writing, that prompted me to think about what I want my contribution to music to look like and what purpose I want my music to serve. 

That led to a number of probably failed attempts to write songs about grief. In the end, I realised I didn’t want it to be an outward expression of grief — or if I did, I didn’t want it to be a “I’m down in the dumpster, I feel this, I miss you” kind of thing. I wanted it to be a different expression.

Since my dad died, the relationship is still there, but it’s changed, and that’s what the song is about. So it works on two levels. The “blue” in the title can refer to something physical – you can read it as a long-distance relationship, where one person is on one side of the ocean, the blue, and the other is on the other side. I can sit on this side of the ocean and hear you calling me, feel you watching me, and we still have this connection.

But it’s also a connection that exists between different realms. So the blue is an abstract idea of struggle or separation. It has different layers, and that was deliberate – the idea that you can feel connected to people who are, in whatever way, separated from you.

How did it feel transitioning from classical to pop songwriting and production?

It was a little bit overwhelming. But I think there’s a difference between feeling overwhelmed or terrified by something and not feeling aligned with it. I had that feeling with all the first attempts at writing songs, and even the first attempts at singing pop songs in a way that didn’t sound like I’d gone to opera school. They did suck – and that’s fine. I really believe that to get good at something, you have to start by sucking at it.

So it was a gradual process of peeling an onion and slowly distilling the thing down. But the whole time I felt I was moving towards something that would feel aligned. That actually made it a really exciting process. It’s a process I’m still on, and probably will be forever, but I’ve got to a point, I hope, where the song sits comfortably in a pop vernacular, while still nodding to where I’ve been.

Are there any more songs or an album in the works?

I’ve fully finished about seven songs. We plan to release more tracks through the first half of 2026, and there’s enough material for a full album.

The Vocal Coaches Studio operates globally from Lincolnshire. What’s the benefit of running it from there?

I’m based in Lincolnshire, though I travel to London weekly for in-person lessons. The quiet here allows focused online teaching. We soundproofed the top floor, installed fibre internet, and I can offer fully produced, high-quality recordings for auditions. This setup allows me to reach students worldwide efficiently.

What is a memorable student transformation that has stayed with you?

Many Broadway students stand out. One struggled with pitch for years. We did three 90-minute lessons a week, and after two or three years, she landed a Broadway role. I’ve also coached screen actors, like Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso), preparing for Oklahoma! at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Students have also found viral success or made it to shows like American Idol. Seeing this happen from Lincolnshire is deeply satisfying.