He studied with Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute from 1965–68 and Sasha Gorodnitzki at the Juilliard School from 1968–71, graduating from the latter with Bachelor of Music and Master of Science degrees.
Living in London from 1973 to 1993, Sheppard continued his studies with Peter Feuchtwanger and Sir Clifford Curzon, and performed with major British orchestras on multiple occasions, as well as many on the European continent.
[4] In the past fifteen years, Sheppard has traveled extensively to the Far East, performing and giving master classes in Japan, Korea, China and Singapore.
In his collaborative work, over the years he has performed with the Bartók, Cleveland and Emerson string quartets, singers Victoria de los Angeles, José Carreras, Renato Bruson and Irina Arkhipova, violinists Ida Haendel, Sylvia Rosenberg and Mayumi Fujikawa, and many musicians of the younger generation, including James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Richard O’Neill, Edward Arron and Johannes Moser.
Sheppard is the co-founder and co-director (with Dr. Robin McCabe) of the Seattle Piano Institute, a camp for young pianists held every July since 2010 at the University of Washington.