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Natalie Shaffer

Natalie Shaffer, Adjunct Professor of Music, earned M.M. degrees in Conducting and Musicology from West Virginia University after teaching choir and general music in the public school systems of Monongalia County, Marion County, and Upshur County (WV). Prior to beginning her teaching career, Ms. Shaffer obtained her Bachelor of Music Education from West Virginia Wesleyan College.


At WVU, Ms. Shaffer is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in Conducting with Dr. Kym Scott and is the Choral Department graduate assistant. She teaches Voice Class for Music Education Majors, Great Composers in Performance, and directs Mountaineer Singers, WVU’S treble choir. Her research into collaborative social justice through choral musicking resulted in her position as Artistic Director with the Voices of Hope, a community choir that welcomes individuals experiencing homelessness, issues related to addiction and alcoholism, and their supporters. Ms. Shaffer contributed a chapter about her experiences with this group for WVU Press’s 2020 publication Opioid Aesthetics: Expressive Culture in an Age of Addiction.


Ms. Shaffer is an avid performer, guest clinician, and presenter whose practices include intentional anti-racist work, the concept of de-centering, and creating welcoming spaces in the music classroom. She is a co-founder and charter member of Masestri Vocale Treble, a semi-professional choir whose members include performers, educators, and conductors from across the Mountain State. An active member of the West Virginia chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, Ms. Shaffer serves as both World Music and Cultures Chair and Social Justice Chair. She is the Director of Music Ministry at Avery United Methodist Church in Morgantown, WV and previously served as Director of Choirs and Vocal Music at Glenville State College (WV) and Interim Director of Choral Activities at Washington and Jefferson College (PA).


She currently resides in Morgantown with her adopted fur child Trevor Moon and maintains a private studio of voice and piano students.