Susan Allen (musician)
| Susan Allen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 10, 1951 Monrovia, California, US |
| Died | September 7, 2015 (aged 64) Kirkland, Washington, US |
| Occupation |
|
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1973 – 2015 |
Susan Allen (May 10, 1951 – September 7, 2015) was an American harpist and music educator. She was particularly known for her world premieres of music for both the classical and electric harp by contemporary composers. She performed in a variety genres—classical, experimental music, jazz, and world music. For many years Allen was also Associate Dean of the Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts.
Allen was born in Monrovia, California and grew up in Santa Barbara where she attended Santa Barbara High School and Laguna Blanca School. She began studying the harp when she was 12, studying and performing at the Music Academy of the West and with the Santa Barbara Youth Theater. After graduation from high school, she attended the New England Conservatory in Boston where she studied under Bernard Zhighera and later Marcel Grandjany. However, she chafed under the NEC's exclusive focus on classical music and after a year returned to California to attend the newly established School of Music at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) where she studied under the harpist Catherine Gotthoffer. A member of the school's first graduating class, Allen received her BFA in Music Performance in 1973.
After graduating from CalArts, Allen moved to the Boston area and became active in several ensembles, including the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Cambridge Chamber Players, Composers Chamber Ensemble, and Composers in Red Sneakers. She also began a career as a soloist as well as appearing frequently as a duo with flautist Robert Stallman. Allen and Stallman premiered Burr Van Nostrand's Ventilation manual: A dusk ceremonial for flute & harp at the 1976 Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam and gave its New York premiere the following year in their joint recital at Carnegie Hall. During this period, Allen premiered many new works for harp by composers who included Ruth Lomon, Elizabeth Vercoe, Thomas Oboe Lee, Roger Bourland, Hayg Boyadjian and William Thomas McKinley. In 1979 she recorded Germaine Tailleferre's Concertino for harp and orchestra with the New England Women's Symphony conducted by Antonia Brico and that same year gave her first solo recital at Carnegie Hall in a program devoted to new music for the harp. Her first solo recording, New Music for Harp, was funded by the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music and was released 1981 on Thomas Buckner's 1750 Arch Records label.
...
Wikipedia