Shawn Morton is currently in her twentieth year as an orchestra teacher in Gwinnett County. Mrs. Morton has taught in her current position at Duluth High School for fifteen years. Prior to teaching at Duluth High School, she taught five years at Five Forks MS. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and a minor in viola performance. While attending UGA, Mrs. Morton was a member of the Honors program and was president of the UGA chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Mrs. Morton also holds a Masters of Business Administration from Shorter College where she graduated with a 4.0.
Mrs. Morton conducts the Gwinnett County Kendall Youth Orchestra, and she has worked as a sectional coach with the Gwinnett County Youth Symphony, and she has served as a clinician for local school orchestras, the Spivey Hall Chamber Orchestra Workshop, The Gwinnett County Violapalooza Festival, The Gwinnett County 6th Grade Honor Orchestra Workshop, the UGA Summer Music Camp and various other workshops and clinics. Her students have been named as members of Kendall Youth Orchestra, Gwinnett County Youth Symphony, Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra, Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Georgia All-State Orchestra and the National High School Honor Orchestra.
Mrs. Morton’s orchestras have performed at the 2007 Midwest Clinic, 2009 American String Teachers Association Conference, the 2011 Georgia Music Educators Association In-service Conference, the 2013 National Band and Orchestra Festival at Lincoln Center, the 2014 Midwest Clinic, and the 2018 American String Teachers Conference, and the 2019 Capital Orchestra Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. This year, the Duluth HS Chamber Orchestra has been invited to play at the 2022 Georgia Music Educators Association In-service Conference.
Mrs. Morton has served as the secretary for the Georgia Chapter of the American String Teachers Association and as the GMEA District 13 Orchestra Chair. In addition, Mrs. Morton was selected to present at the 2014 GMEA In-service Conference about recruitment and retention of orchestra students and the 2019 GMEA Conference about working with student teachers. Mrs. Morton also presented at the 2019 Midwest Clinic. Recently, she served as one of the writers for the new Georgia Standards of Excellence for Orchestra. She currently serves as the HS Orchestra Lead Teacher for GCPS and the Duluth HS Fine Arts Dept. Chair. Mrs. Morton is a member of the American String Teachers Association, Georgia Music Educators Association, Professional Association of Georgia Educators, and Sigma Beta Delta. She resides in Buford, GA with her husband Dale, son Hudson, and dogs Mozart and Aria.
shawn.morton@gcpsk12.org