Reinhardt students are singing to the tune of a new professor. Dr. Martha Shaw has been appointed as a professor of music at the University, which is located in Waleska, Ga. Her official duties will begin in fall 2012.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to add someone with Dr. Shaw’s experience and reputation to our faculty,” said Dr. Dennis McIntire, dean of the School of Music.

Shaw Background

Shaw, the Lester Harbin chair of conducting, is professor of music and the director of choral activities at Shorter University. In 2008, she was honored with the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. A specialist in vocal pedagogy for all ages, she is active as a clinician and as a guest conductor throughout the United States. Her fifteen years of experience as a public school music specialist contribute significantly to her work at Shorter, where she teaches conducting, ear-training, sight-singing, and music methods classes as well as conducts the Shorter Chorale. 

She is the founding director of the Spivey Hall Children’s Choir. Under her direction, the choir has been featured in performances for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the national conferences of the Orff-Schulwerk Association, and Chorus America, and on NPR’s Performance Today and From the Top. 

Shaw received a bachelor of music education degree from Shorter College and a master of science degree in Music Education from the University of Tennessee, where she studied with Donald Neuen. Prior to joining the faculty at Shorter in 1999, Shaw studied with Larry Wyatt at the University of South Carolina, where she was a member of the faculty and earned a doctor of musical arts degree in conducting.