Joanna Shelton

Violin & Viola

Joanna Shelton is an Eastman-educated freelancer who has performed extensively with the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, at the Guthrie and Children’s Theatres, and has taught at St. Olaf College and the College of St. Benedict. For her, teaching violin is fostering the DIY movement: “making your own music just has to earn WAY more cosmic points than listening to someone else’s expert studio work.”

Her yard is a lawnless cacophony of perennials fighting it out among themselves (Joanna is merely the editor). She also knits fraternal twin socks with the help of her cats and dogs.

In addition to ongoing musical exploration with Lyra and the chamber music series Music Saint Croix, a favorite professional experience is having string quartetted for Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s creative reincarnations of Mozart operas between 1999 and 2007.