Education:

• D.M.A., Clarinet Performance, University of Texas at Austin, 1998
• M.M., Clarinet Performance, Boston University, 1988
• B.A., Music, University of Oregon, 1986

Biography:

Shannon Thompson is associate professor of music at Western Carolina University where she has led the clarinet studio since 1997. She teaches all clarinet courses (lessons, principals, ensembles, and reed making), as well as the pedagogy of woodwind instruments class for future band directors.

Dr. Thompson received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Clarinet Performance from the University of Texas at Austin where she completed a study of the most significant influences on clarinet playing to come out of the United States in her doctoral treatise, "A History and Analysis of the Philadelphia School of Clarinet Playing."

Dr. Thompson is principal clarinetist of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra and bass clarinetist of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. She maintains an active performing career as a recitalist and chamber musician. She has been a featured artist in Atlanta’s Spivey Concert Hall Recital Series and a solo artist at the International Clarinet Association’s Clarinetfest 2003 in Salt Lake City.