About Renee Shaw Nutwell
Life currently has me residing in Hagerstown, Maryland with my husband Mark, our daughter Evelyn and our sweet cat Luna. While we love to travel and have been lucky to recently visit places like England, France and the US’s west coast, you can also find us around Hagerstown attending the local jazz night at the Broad Axe, taking in some folk music in Shepherdstown or just taking a walk together in City Park.
I'm so glad you've found my website and hope you find teaching resources to help you and the students in your life develop a love of music!
I began my violin studies in the Washington County Public School System at Northern Middle School with Marianne Gooding. It was Marianne who informed me in this first year that music could be a path through college and beyond; it was from that point I was hooked.
As time passed, I continued to privately study flute and guitar before settling on piano lessons in 2005 and violin the following year. During this time, Frauke Higgins of Hagerstown, Maryland assisted with my piano and theory studies while Julie Heder provided instruction for me on violin. In addition to these studies, I participated in local programs such as the Shepherd University Preparatory Youth Orchestra and their annual summer camp.
At the beginning of my college career, I studied violin at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania with Peter Sirotin, current concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. At the close of my first year at Messiah College, I chose to return to Shepherd University of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Along with this change of location, I began studies with Heather Austin-Stone and Jeffry Newberger on the violin, piano with Gary Mullenax and voice with Brooke Evers. It was during this time I found my passion for working with students on an individual basis towards their music goals!
