Shelley Withee was born (April 11, 1988) to her adopted parents Scott and Jan Withee, who then moved to Oregon where Shelley spent the adolescent years of her life. From a young age she planned to be a star on Broadway and spent most of her time in middle and high school performing in the fall musicals and participating in the local community theatre. There she met composer Marilyn Olson who inspired her to compose instead of sing. In December of that year, Shelley received news that her uncle had been killed in a car accident, hit by a driver under the influence. Inspired by her belief in God, the sudden loss, coupled with the encouragement of her mentor, prompted her to write a two-act musical based on the book of Job entitled The Wager, using the Bible as her canvas to paint a representation of grief in a modern world.

She is currently studying composition at Western Oregon University under her advisor and mentor Dr. Kevin Walczyk, and Dr. Joseph Harchanko. She participates actively in the choral ensembles at school and enjoys dancing to warm-ups or songs that others have deemed IQ-lowering. While finishing school she works as a sound engineer for the fine arts program.

She is currently writing Scarlet Woman, a musical based on the story of Rahab, found in the book of Joshua.

Download a copy of Shelley's Composer Biographies (pdf 40k)

Click here to listen to Shelley's performance of Not Every Woman Needs a Man (MP3 26.8MB)

Click to view Shelley's QuickTime video (QT 7.6MB)

Music Department  ¤  MUS 419 Home Page

Western Home Page

Copyright © 2007 Western Oregon University.
Direct suggestions, comments, and questions about this page to keveli@wou.edu
Help! Problems with this page?