Jennifer Shaw was born in Taiwan, where she started playing cello at age eight. After moving to San Diego two years later, she spent seven years in the San Diego Youth Symphony. As a freelance cellist in New York, she has performed for Bill and Hillary Clinton at Carnegie Hall and in concert with the Eagles at the Beacon Theatre, as well as at such venues as David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Town Hall, the American Museum of Natural History, The Bitter End, Rockwood Music Hall, Green Room 42, and Provincetown Playhouse. Besides The Chelsea Symphony, Jennifer has also performed with the New Manhattan Sinfonietta under conductor Gürer Aykal, the Classical Saxophone Project, Protestra, the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, and Regina Opera; recorded for the original motion picture soundtracks to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), Noah (2014), and The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014); and was a founding member of the Brooklyn Chamber Players. Elsewhere in the US, she has performed in South Pacific at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, with the Winecreek Ensemble in San Diego, and with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and toured the South as a member of the Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra. Jennifer has also taught cello at New York University and the Third Street Music School Settlement.

Jennifer received her Master's degree in Music from New York University as a student of Edward Arron and her Bachelor's in Music and German from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied with Karen Buranskas. She now works as an administrator at NYU.