Shelley Rich has been a member of the string faculty at Northern Arizona University since 2007 as adjunct instructor of violin and string pedagogy. During this time, Ms. Rich has taught private violin lessons to music majors and non-majors, coached university chamber music groups and taught string pedagogy classes to undergraduate and graduate students.

She has performed actively as a member of the Coconino Chamber Ensemble and on various faculty recitals. She currently serves as the assistant concertmaster and principal second violin (rotating) of the Flagstaff Symphony. In addition, Ms Rich has been elected to serve as the president of the Arizona Chapter of the American String Teachers Association where she is active in launching a nationwide effort to raise standards of string playing for students and teachers of all levels though the implementation of the Certificate Advancement Program.

From 1997-2005, Ms. Rich was the instructor and coordinator of the violin/viola Pedagogy Program at the University of Oregon, a pedagogy program primarily for graduate student performance majors that trained teachers resulting in numerous successful job placements. While at U of O, Ms. Rich served as founder/director of the Community Music Institute Suzuki Strings Program and the pre-college Chamber Players Program. In these capacities, Ms. Rich was dedicated to creating strong learning liaisons between community string students and university music majors and faculty. Ms. Rich was the founder/director of the Northwest Suzuki Institute and the Northwest Advanced String Camp, which attracted students from across the western United States. Ms. Rich served as the president-elect and president of the Oregon Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. In addition, Ms. Rich taught at string workshops and Suzuki institutes across the country, including Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Utah, California, Arizona, and Hawaii.

Ms. Rich is a 1991 graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she earned a BM in violin performance and studied chamber music intensively for two years with members of the Cleveland Quartet.

During the years 1991-94, she taught string methods classes at the University of Utah, coached the Utah Youth Symphony and taught Jr. High and High School orchestras for the Davis County School District. From 1994-96, Ms. Rich taught elementary strings programs for the Tempe School District and taught with the Valley of the Sun Suzuki Association. In 1997 she received her master’s degree in violin performance and completed long-term Suzuki training with Karin Hallberg and Louise Scott at Northern Arizona University, where she also taught string methods and served as a vice president and co- founder of the Arizona Suzuki Association.

She has played in many orchestras and music festivals including: Tanglewood (MA), Music Academy of the West (CA), Heidelberg Castle Festival Opera Orchestra (Germany), Ballet West (UT), Eugene Symphony (OR), Oregon Mozart Players, Oregon Festival of American Music, Flagstaff Symphony, Oregon Coast Music Festival, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and as concertmaster with the Genesee Orchestra in New York, the Congress of Strings Chamber Orchestra in Detroit.

Over the past 18 years, Ms. Rich has been a dedicated private studio teacher and many of her students have received acknowledgement by soloing with professional and youth orchestras, receiving admission and scholarships to prestigious summer music camps (Encore, Quartet Program, Interlochen,) and achieving awards in solo and chamber music competitions, including the junior division of the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition.