Note: This event has been cancelled. Please join us for the next Music in the City on Tuesday, October 6 with Cecilia Stearman, mezzo-soprano.

Shellie Brown Kemp is a violinist who is proud to call Jackson, Mississippi her home and birthplace. Her recent roles include concertmaster of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (2021-2024), teaching privately, and freelance performing. While on a personal sabbatical to be home with her children, Kemp still enjoys playing professionally. In addition to music, Kemp runs a vintage furniture business and enjoys interior design. The tandem love for classic old artful objects is not a far reach from a life dedicated to digging up and perfecting beauty in music, all means to an end of sharing passion with community.

Kemp holds two degrees in music performance. Her undergraduate was completed in this beloved city at Belhaven University studying with Song Xie, and her graduate degree in the city of Houston at Rice University with Paul Kantor. In addition she attended renowned summer music festivals such as Aspen Summer Music Festival and Summer Music Institute at the Kennedy Center.

Her years of playing the violin since she was five have lead her all across the country, winning accolades such as multiple Music Teacher National Association Competition awards, a substitute position with the New World Symphony Orchestra, 2022 Belhaven University’s Young Alumni of the Year, and more. Kemp’s most proud accolade is having a concerto written for her by local composer Jimmy Sclater, which she debuted in January 2024 with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

Kemp continues to dedicate time perfecting her craft and sees it as an ever evolving art. She looks forward to continue sharing it with the Jackson community.

Shellie plays a 2009 Gary Rickman violin on generous loan from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation.

Music in the City is generously sponsored by St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral