Shannon was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she began her musical studies in violin at the Oral Roberts University Suzuki School in 1986 at the age of 2½ . She is the youngest student ever to have studied at the school. Her primary teachers included Marilyn George, Linnea Geroge, Sherri Scales-Neubauer, and Maureen O’Boyle. Private piano lessons were a part of her musical studies beginning at the age of 7 and continued throughout college. During student years, she held positions as Concertmistress (First Chair) of several prestigious symphony orchestras and chamber music groups including the Oklahoma All State Orchestra, Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute Orchestra, Tulsa Youth Symphony Orchestra, The Arkansas Regional Chamber Orchestra, Arioso String Trio, and played professionally with members of the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra as a part of Greg Lynch Strings. Following her high school graduation in 2001, Shannon was selected through audition into the highly competitive National Symphony Summer Youth Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

In the Fall of 2001, Shannon began her studies at Baylor University. While there, she studied violin with Dr. Eka Gogichashvili and performed with Baylor University Symphony Orchestra and Waco Symphony Orchestra. Shannon also developed her improvisation skills on the violin at Antioch Community Church. In 2002, she was chosen as one of two young violinist interns to play alongside renowned orchestral professionals from major symphony orchestras around the world who comprise Eastern Symphony Orchestra at Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C. Initially majoring in Violin Performance and Pedagogy, she completed her degree in International Studies with a minor in music in 2006. Connecting her International Studies degree and her love of music, Shannon has traveled abroad sharing the international language of music in Turkey, Mexico, Czech Republic, France, England, Wales and Israel.

Following her time at Baylor University, Shannon began performing professionally in Texas. In 2007- 2008, was when Shannon learned to play fiddle style violin and became a stage performer at Gilley's Dallas as a member of the House Band - Chris Rivers Band. Shannon was the original fiddler for the pop-country band Breaking Southwest from 2010-2014.

During this time, she appeared in music videos, commercials, live televised events, radio, and morning news shows.