After begging her parents for lessons, Shannon Bowles began playing the violin at the age of six.  Even in the last year of her Bachelor of Music program at the Glenn Gould school her enthusiasm had not waned.  In 2006, Shannon graduated from the two year Mount Royal College Performance diploma program on the Deans Honour Roll.  She is now studying with Erika Raum at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto as well as teaching at the St. Christopher House Music School.

While at Mount Royal College, Shannon enjoyed a first rate education under the guidance of Bill Vander Sloot.  There, she had the opportunity to perform on an almost weekly basis with the Calgary Youth Orchestra.  She also played in Master Class,  the First Tuesday Recitals, the Kiwanis Music Fesitval and most importantly at her graduation recital.  Also, while at Mount Royal College Shannon played for musicians from across Canada and the United States such as Ian Swensen, Gwen Hoebig and Kai Glustin.  In 2005 her quartet  was flown to Toronto in order to represent the classical music programs offered in Calgary. 

Born in Nelson, B.C., Shannon has lived most of her life in small rural communities.  Surrounded by the mountains, she enjoyed winter activities such as downhill skiing.  But it was music that she fell in love with, and by her mid-teens she was playing with various orchestras in the area and performing in competitions.  AT sixteen, Shannon represented the Kootenay Region at the Provincial Music Festival in Langley, B.C.  At seventeen she was again chosen as the region's provincial strings representative in Kamloops, B.C.  Shannon also had the opportunity to play with the Symphonie of the Kootenays, the Songfest Orchestra and the Selkirk Youth Orchestra.  Upon graduation from high school, she moved to Germany and continued her lessons with Marareta Adorf in Saarbrucken.  And in 2004, she represented the Kiwanis Music Festival once more in the Provincial Finals.