Shellie Bransford

Shellie Bransford educator and performer, has been a teaching artist and program developer since 1983 creating programs for teachers and teaching artists with Washington Performing Arts Society, New York University, New York Philharmonic, Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts as well as the Royal Opera in London. Shellie is a trainer with the New York City Department of Education Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Music and Theater and Program Developer for the National Young Scholars Program with Envision EMI, LLC. She is on faculty at Fergus and Clark Academy for the Performing Arts, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, as Director of Curriculum, as a member of the voice department and as an acting coach. She collaborated in the creation of the Young Artist Program – an ensemble and individual studio lesson approach for young people – and The CoOP, an arts integration program that provides students the opportunity to design their own course. Most recently The CoOp presented The French Cafe, a study of French culture through a painting by Renoir, French Art Songs, Cabaret and popular songs, and French cuisine. As event manager she has planned and managed concerts, theatre and events in honor of Nelson Mandela; for the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; and for Jessye Norman Sings for the Healing of AIDS with Maya Angelou, Whoopi Goldberg, Elton John, Bill T. Jones, Toni Morrison, Max Roach, Anna Deavere Smith and Director George C. Wolfe, among others. Shellie helped to create and performed in Everybody Says Don’t: Broadway Breaks the Silence presented as a result of a grant from Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts that illustrates the importance of the arts in challenging the community to respond to issues of social justice. Shellie Bransford worked for twenty years with the Metropolitan Opera Guild as Program Director, Teaching Artist and contributor to the internationally acclaimed Creating Original Opera Program.