Shelby Sender, piano

Shelby Sender received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Maryland in 2013 and has been active as both a solo and collaborative pianist. She has performed at both the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Hungarian Ambassador's Residence, and is the co-founder of Mosaic Children's Choir, a group that incorporates movement, drama, dance, and performs in non-traditional spaces. In March 2012, she performed in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall as a part of the Adamant School of Music's 70th Anniversary Concert. Dr. Sender was featured in a 2011 festival at Ithaca College commemorating the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt's birth and has given world premieres of works by Walter Gieseking at the American Musicological Society's annual conference. She regularly works with Charlottesville Opera, Charlottesville Ballet, and Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra, and can be heard on a Centaur recording of unpublished works by Walter Gieseking, playing both solo and chamber music. 

Dr. Sender was recently sent by the Sister Cities Commission to both Pleven, Bulgaria and Besancon, France to represent Charlottesville in concert, and has given performances in Budapest in Bartók Hall at the Institute for Musicology, and the Régi Zeneakadémia at the Franz Liszt Memorial House and Museum in Hungary, as well as the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Universität der Kunste in Berlin.

Dr. Sender is an Instructor of Piano at the University of Virginia, where she teaches private lessons and Keyboard Skills classes. She received her Master of Music degree from the University of Maryland and her Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College, and teachers include Bradford Gowen, Read Gainsford, and Jennifer Hayghe.