Ms. Sally Shumway

Bachelor of Music in Viola, University of Kansas

Master of Music, Manhattan School of Music


As a freelance viola player in the New York metropolitan area, Sally Shumway has had the opportunity to do a wide variety of work. She has played on many recordings ranging from Strauss operas to video games, movie soundtracks such as Snake Eyes, A Time to Kill, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and Broadway shows including Sondheim’s Passion, Titanic: A New Musical, and Gypsy with Patti LuPone.

As a classical musician, Sally has performed with the Colorado Philharmonic, the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, the Vermont Symphony, the Portland (Maine) Symphony and the Cedar Rapids Symphony, where she was the principal violist. She has been a member of the Riverside String Quartet and “Infusion”, a chamber music group which specialized in music of the 20th century. Currently, Sally performs with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Bronx Arts Ensemble. She can be heard on the Bronx Arts Ensemble recordings of composers Carlos Surinach, Robert Baksa, Meyer Kupferman, Soong Fu Yuan, and Roberto Sierra.

Sally holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she received the Hugo Kortschak Award for Excellence in Chamber Music, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola from the University of Kansas. A longtime advocate of the Suzuki philosophy of teaching violin, Sally is currently teaching Suzuki group and private violin lessons at the Montessori Spring School in Tenafly. She also started a Suzuki violin program at The Learning Center of Clifton NJ. In addition, she has taught beginning Strings classes to 5th and 6th graders and conducted the orchestra at the Fieldston School of the Ethical Culture Society.

Sally has been instrumental in developing our Suzuki-plus! Violin Program, where young musicians ages four through seven learn to play the violin through listening, imitation and repetition, as well as learning to read music, in our own Ridgewood Conservatory approach to the Suzuki method!