Omar Shelly

Omar was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV and began playing the viola through a middle school orchestra program at age 11. After graduating from the Las Vegas Academy of Performing and Visual Arts he attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to pursue his undergraduate studies with Jodi Levitz and then the University of Michigan for his masters degree with Yizhak Schotten. In 2014, he won a section position with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, but before permanently moving back to the Las Vegas area was offered to join a training orchestra program at Bard College, New York. As a founding member of The Orchestra Now, he performed in venues all over the New York City area including several times at Carnegie Hall, Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Omar returned to Las Vegas in 2018, and has been performing and teaching in the area ever since, working frequently with local arts institutions like the Young Artists Orchestra of Las Vegas, the Nevada School of the Arts and the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras program.