Earl Shaffer
Misc EE Supv Teach Acad Yr

Earl E. Shaffer, Jr. is currently in his 45th year as a music educator in the 2024-25 academic year.  He retired from public school music teaching after 35 years in June 2015 and has been a music faculty member at Longwood since.   An Arlington, Virginia native, he graduated from James Madison University in 1980 with a Bachelors of Music in Education degree.  An avid lifelong learner, Mr. Shaffer earned a Masters of Music in Music Education degree from Anderson University, South Carolina in May 2018, just days prior to his 61^st birthday.  

He was the director of the Covington (Va.) High School Band for nine years prior to moving to Chesterfield County in August 1989 where he began a seventeen-year tenure as the director of bands at Lloyd C. Bird High School in Chesterfield County. He was appointed to develop the band program when the new Cosby High School opened in 2006 and remained there until his retirement.

Mr. Shaffer’s bands earned SUPERIOR ratings for 26 consecutive years at VBODA concert festivals beginning in 1990 and continuing to 2015 making this one of the longest streaks of its kind in the history of the Commonwealth.  Mr. Shaffer’s bands have also earned Commonwealth of Virginia Honor Band titles 17 times as well during his career.   Mr. Shaffer is a class of 2011 inductee in the High School Band Directors National Association (HSBDNA) Hall of Fame in Columbus Georgia and a recipient of the John Long Award for National Excellence in Music Education. He was inducted into the Virginia Band and Orchestra Association (VBODA) Hall of Fame in November, 2022.   Mr. Shaffer was awarded a life membership in Kappa Kappa Psi Fraternity by the chapter where is he a founder at JMU.  He is also a brother of Phi Mu Alpha and a member of Phi Beta Mu.  He holds memberships in VBODA  and NafME.

In retirement, Mr. Shaffer is currently serving as a professor in the department of music at Longwood University where his responsibilities have included conducting the LU Wind Symphony, directing the LU Jazz Ensemble and directing/coordinating  “Stampede”, the LU basketball pep band.  Currently he teaches music education classes and supervises music student teachers. 

Mr. Shaffer is an active adjudicator and clinician for scholastic marching and concert band rehearsals and festivals in the mid-Atlantic region.   He is a regular guest conductor of area and district honor bands as well.

Mr. Shaffer was named the conductor of the Richmond Pops in April 2022 that performs in front of thousands of patrons at the historic Altria Theater.  He was one of the conductors of the Virginia Ambassadors of Music Summer 2016 and 2018 two-week European Concert Tour.   He is also the Associate Conductor of the Greater Richmond Youth Wind Ensemble (GRYWE) which is an auditioned Richmond-area honor band that rehearses weekly in the spring at Virginia Commonwealth University.  

Away from teaching, Mr. Shaffer is an avid N-Scale and O-Gauge model railroad operator and collector, a pilot of radio-controlled aircraft, is a clarinet and saxophone performer who currently performs with the Commonwealth Winds of Richmond Virginia, the Richmond Clarinet Choir, the Reflections Big Band and is an avid distance bicyclist. Most importantly, he is the proud grandfather of three all born in 2023, one in April, one in May and one in July.