Sheila Mary Nelson (5 March 1936 – 16 November 2020) was an English musician, music instructor, writer, and composer. She was well-known as a violin and viola instructor, although she had previously performed with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Menuhin Festival Orchestra. Sheila M. Nelson is her pen name, but most people call her Sheila. Nelson earned a Bachelor of Music from London University, where he also studied, and then went on to look at the Royal College of Music. After that, she attended the University of Birmingham and the University of Copenhagen for her education. Later, in the 1980s, she oversaw a groundbreaking group-teaching project[4] in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. Her career began in 1976 when she received a Churchill Fellowship to study with the renowned string pedagogue Paul Rolland in the United States. The Tower Hamlets Project was the subject of the six-part TV documentary series Beginners Please because it brought music education to underprivileged schoolchildren in London. Nelson co-wrote the Essential String Method series and wrote/composed music for a wide variety of additional Boosey & Hawkes music education and repertory books. Only 300 artists worldwide have ever been awarded the title of "Honorary Member" (Hon RAM) by the Royal Academy of Music, which she had. A victim of Alzheimer's disease, Nelson passed away on November 16, 2020, at 84.