Shelley was very fortunate to be offered a music scholarship at high school and it was suggested by her music teacher that she take singing lessons – something Shelley had never heard of! It didn’t take long before she was hooked. Since then Shelley has studied singing with Mary Adams-Taylor and gained an ATCL. She is currently a member of New Zealand’s premier vocal ensemble, Tower Voices New Zealand, and sang for the National Youth Choir for six years - a highlight of which was winning the Choir of the World title at the Llangollen Eisteddfod in Wales in 1999.
Shelley has performed small roles for Canterbury Opera in The Magic Flute and A Christmas Carol. She was also a member of the NBR New Zealand Opera Chorus for Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and appeared in Southern Opera’s inaugural production of Carmen. Other highlights for Shelley include being a soloist at a formal dinner for the President of China, and for Canterbury Opera’s Orton Bradley Opera in the Park.