Sheila Nelson

Sheila Mary Nelson (born 1936 in Manchester) is an English musician, music educator, writer and composer. She has played with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Menuhin Festival Orchestra but is best known as a violin and viola teacher. She is usually referred to as Sheila Nelson, but appears in her published works as Sheila M. Nelson.

Sheila Nelson studied at the Royal College of Music and has a B.Mus degree from London University. She has also studied at the University of Birmingham and in Denmark. In 1976 she went to the USA on a Churchill Fellowship to study with the eminent string pedagogue Paul Rolland, and in the 1980s directed an innovative group-teaching project in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Tower Hamlets Project taught strings and piano to whole school classes in a deprived area of London, and was featured in a six-part TV documentary series, Beginners Please.

Nelson is co-author of the Essential String Method series and author/composer of other many music instruction and repertoire books, published by Boosey & Hawkes. She is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM), a distinction limited to 300 musicians.

Nelson is a prolific writer and composer. Selected works include:

• Christmas Tunes for strings
• Technitunes for individual strings or ensemble
• Octotunes for individual strings or ensemble
• Quartet Club for string quartet
• Stringsongs for violin/viola and piano
• The Violin and Viola: History, Structure, Techniques. 1972 book republished 2003