Shirley Apthorp was born in Cape Town, South Africa.  She grew up in Australia, and studied violin performance in Hobart, Tasmania.  During her student years she began writing about music for local and national publications.  In 1994, a Churchill Fellowship and an Australia Council grant enabled her to head for Europe, where she began with a course in German at the Goethe Institut in Berlin.  The city cast a spell on her, and she moved there permanently in 1996.

She writes about music for the Financial Times (UK), Bloomberg (USA), and numerous other international publications.  Inspired by visits to Venezuela, where she witnessed social change through music in the form of Jose Antonio Abreu’s “El Sistema”, Shirley Apthorp founded Umculo/ Cape Festival in 2009.  This international music organisation supports lasting social change through music in South Africa through showcase events, partnerships, and conferences.