Local violin prodigy set to perform debut recital in Martin

A young violinist from Henry is set to make her Northwest Tennessee concert debut.

Iris Shepherd, 16, will perform a show beginning at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 in the Blankenship Recital Hall in the Fine Arts Building of the University of Tennessee at Martin. The concert will have free admission.

Shepherd will perform from a collection including Bach, Paganini and Sibelius with a little bluegrass thrown in.

Shepherd is a student of Cornelia Heard, holder of the Valere Blair Potter Chair at Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, and made her solo orchestral debut with the Georgia Philharmonic at age 12. She has also performed solo concerts with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra in Alaska and the Vanderbilt Curb Youth Symphony. Most recently, she was chosen to perform on National Public Radio’s national radio program “From the Top.”

Shepherd was also named the 2021 Music Teachers National Association national winner in senior strings in May. Some of her other accomplishments include winning the Miami Symphony’s Heart Out Piano and Strings Competition, the Curb Youth Symphony Concerto competition, the Tennessee American Strings Teachers’ Association competition, the Delta Symphony Concerto competition and is a two-time prize winner in the Hilton Head Orchestra Youth Concerto competition.

During the summer of 2016, she performed on the Grand Ole Opry stage, playing a featured solo as part of the Fine Arts Summer Academy, and won the James G. “Bobo” Driver National Championship fiddle contest in 2017.

Her collaborative pianist is Dawson Hull from Memphis. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Memphis, a master’s degree from Peabody Conservatory and a bachelor’s degree from Samford University. 

He has appeared as soloist with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, Delta Symphony Orchestra, Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Samford University Orchestra, Southeastern Chamber Orchestra, the Ocmulgee Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Memphis. Hull is the pianist for the 80-member Tennessee Men’s Chorale and is the associate pastor of Instrumental Worship Arts at Germantown Baptist Church.