Sheila Felder gained her passion for orchestral music during high school and has gone on to become both a musician and music educator. She is pleased to be a section cellist with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra for over 35 years and serves as the principal cellist with the Chicagoland Educators Orchestra (Naperville, IL). She has also performed with the Sioux City Symphony (IA), Beloit-Janesville Symphony (WI), Clinton Symphony (IA) and other tri-state orchestras. When she is not playing cello, she enjoys playing bass guitar with a band weekly. Sheila is a graduate of Morningside University (IA) and VanderCook College of Music (Chicago, IL).
As a music educator, she is currently the orchestra director at DeKalb High School in Illinois and is both an active guest conductor and adjudicator. She is the recipient of the 2022 Illinois Outstanding School Orchestra Director Award, is a Golden Apple Foundation Teacher Award Finalist and received the Illinois String Teachers Association Distinguished Service Award previously. Sheila has conducted and performed in Europe numerous times, including England, France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Upcoming guest conducting opportunities include the Northern Illinois University Philharmonic Orchestra and the Illinois District 5 Senior Orchestra at Eastern Illinois University. She is an advocate for harp education in schools and has developed a robust harp program at DeKalb. She has also developed a program to enable students in need access to quality instruments and subsidized lessons. When not busy with music, she enjoys competing with her Pembroke Welsh Corgis in American Kennel Club events and spending time with her husband and two daughters, who are both musicians.
