Terry Shade
After 35 years in the middle school orchestra classroom, Terry Shade is retired and lives in Bentonville, Arkansas with her family. She was most recently the orchestra director at Pacific Cascade Middle School in Issaquah, Washington where she built a large and thriving orchestra program. Prior to her tenure in the Issaquah School District, Terry’s teaching experiences included a decade in Atlanta, Georgia and Las Vegas, Nevada. Her strong leadership as a facilitator/supervisor in Nevada prompted the state of Nevada to honor her with the Steve Maytan Contribution to Education Award. In the Clark County School District, she mentored and worked with a large staff of approximately 80 orchestra teachers.
Recognized as a string specialist and project facilitator at the middle school level, Ms. Shade has presented workshops throughout the United States and United Kingdom about building and establishing successful orchestra programs through quality pedagogical teaching. She has been conductor for all state and honor orchestras, working with students from around the country and has served as clinician and adjudicator for the ASTA National Conference. In 2023, Terry was a headliner clinician at the Texas Orchestra Directors Association Summer Convention.
Ms. Shade earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Loyola University, New Orleans and from there, quickly began her teaching career, with her passion and strength focused on beginning string players. As her classroom experience grew, she contributed a chapter in the ASTA Publication String Teaching in America: Strategies for a Diverse Society about her experiences teaching orchestra in at-risk schools. While in Washington, Mrs. Shade was named the 2012 WMEA/American String Teachers Association “Outstanding Orchestra Teacher of the Year,” and the Issaquah Middle School Teacher of the Year. In 2014, she received the Educator of the Year Award at Pacific Cascade Middle School.
She is a co-author of String Basics™: Steps to Success for String Orchestra, Books 1, 2, and 3, and Basic Theory and History for Strings Workbooks 1 and 2.
