Meet our Music Director ...

Frances Shelton

Frances Shelton took the baton for the Asheville Community Band starting in September 2018.  Fran is no stranger to the art of leading concert bands, nor the geography of Western North Carolina, and we are proud to share her resume with you.

After graduating from Hendersonville High School, Fran received her B.A. degree in Elementary Education and B.M. degree in Music Education from Mars Hill College, graduating cum laude.  She received her Masters of Music degree from Appalachian State University.  Fran holds membership in North Carolina Bandmasters Association, Women Band Directors International, and American School Band Directors Association. 

Fran has served as president of the Western North Carolina Bandmasters Association, President-Elect of North Carolina Bandmasters Association, President of the North Carolina Bandmasters Association, Secretary of the NC Music Educators Association, Vice President, President-Elect of the Women Band Directors International, President of Women Band Directors International and Immediate Past President of the Women Band International and the High School Representative for National Band Association.  Frances is the 1990 winner of the Award of Excellence in North Carolina-Western District, 1992 winner of the WBDI Scroll of Excellence, 1996 Teacher of the Year Award at Hendersonville HS, and 2004 WBDI Citation of Merit Award.  In December 2009, Frances was awarded the Silver Baton Award by the Women Band Directors International at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.  

Fran also has served as clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States and Canada, and has been staff conductor fourteen times on European Tours.   Fran was director of bands at Hendersonville High School in Hendersonville, North Carolina for the past 28 years.  During her 28 years the HHS Bands received numerous superior ratings with the concert, marching and jazz bands.  The HHS Bands have performed at Billy Graham's Congressional Medal Ceremony, 1996 Olympic games, Gator, Sugar and Orange Bowls, Carnegie Hall in NYC, Symphony Hall in Boston, Mass., the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Chicago Symphony Hall in Chicago, IL, Renee and Henry Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, Disney World, and Atlanta Symphony Hall. . The Hendersonville High School Band program was featured in the 2011 September Issue of the School Band and Orchestra Magazine as “A SMALL SCHOOL WITH A BIG BAND.”

In 2014, the Hendersonville High School Concert Bands were invited to perform again at Carnegie Hall on their ten-year anniversary of the most outstanding high school bands throughout the United States.

Fran is the tour director for the North Carolina Ambassadors, a performing ensemble that features the most talented band students throughout North Carolina that represent the United States on summer tour of seven countries in Europe.  The NC Ambassadors will be performing summer of 2019 throughout Europe.  Fran will assume the Conductor of the Asheville Community Band in September 2018, but has played trumpet throughout her career with the Asheville Community Band.