Director of The Central Pennsylvania Youth Orchestra

Matt Shaffer

Matt Shaffer is the orchestra director at Park Forest and Mount Nittany Middle Schools in the State College Area School District. He also serves as the director of the drama club at Mount Nittany.  Matt is passionate about creativity in the string classroom and recently co-authored a book called The Creative String Orchestra which was published by F-flat Books. Since the launch of the book, Matt has presented on creativity in the string orchestra classroom at the state and national levels at conferences such as NAfME, PMEA, ASTA and for Noteflight. 

During his undergraduate studies at Penn State, Matt studied cello with Kim Cook. He was an active member of the Glee Club and currently serves on the board of the Glee Club AIG. Since his time at Penn State, he earned his Masters degree at Lebanon Valley College (MME). His comprehensive middle school string program focuses on performance and creative projects. He emphasizes playing techniques while expanding his students’ knowledge of composition and creativity through their playing. His students are competitive players representing State College Area School District at festivals and competitions locally and nationally. Additionally, Matt has taken on multiple student teachers in cooperation with the Penn State School of Music and enjoys being a life-long mentor and collaborator with other string teachers around the country.

In addition to teaching, Matt enjoys music directing and performing in local pit orchestras and the Shippensburg Festival Orchestra. He lives in State College with his wife, Melanie, their sons, Kyle and Carson, and their two dogs.