Shelley Beard

Prysm Strings Faculty

Shelley Beard received her Bachelor’s Degree from Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Victoria Chiang, and her Master’s Degree from Indiana University School of Music, where she studied with Atar Arad. Currently, Ms. Beard is the Program Director and a faculty member at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, as well as a faculty coach for Prysm Strings at PYO Music Institute.  As an active performer, Ms. Beard was a former and founding member of both the Tononi Quartet and the prize-winning Muhlenberg Piano.  Ms. Beard has extensive pedagogical training, including a minor in Violin Pedagogy (focusing on Galamian, Rolland, Suzuki, and Gingold) from IU with Mimi Zweig; over 15 units of Suzuki training registered with the Suzuki Association of the America’s; and participation at the 2019 Dorothy Delay Symposium at The Juilliard School.  Ms. Beard has been honored to receive numerous teaching awards, including the 2016 American Viola Society’s Maurice Riley Award; the 2018 PYO Music Institute’s Ovation Award; and the Suzuki Association’s Certificate of Achievement in 2009.  Ms. Beard is also an active performer of electric and crossover genres, a sought-after recording artist, and is featured on the original folk-rock album “Pieces Of You And Me.” She actively seeks out opportunities to give her students multicultural musical experiences.  Shelley resides in Lansdowne with her husband Jim, her daughter Violet, and their four cats.