Miss Allen has served as Executive Director of the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at Juilliard
and co-founded and co-directed The Juilliard Trombone Choir. She was also Artistic Director of
the Sun Valley Summer Music Workshops in Idaho, where she founded and conducted the Sun Valley Youth Orchestra.
A former
conductor in the U.S. Army Bands Program, Miss Allen was a pioneer for women in military bands. She was the first woman to
command and conduct an active duty military band that included women when she was appointed Principal Conductor of The U.S.
Army Forces Command Band in Atlanta. As the Associate Conductor of The U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, she was the
first woman conductor of that historic organization, as well as the Cadet Glee Club and Cadet Band. She also performed on
stages from the Hollywood Bowl to Europe as the first woman conductor of the Army's premier touring ensembles from Washington,
D.C., The U.S. Army Field Band and The Soldiers' Chorus. Her military career included an assignment as the Department
of the Army Staff Bands Officer in Washington, D.C., where she managed over 100 Army bands and band activities worldwide.
Miss Allen frequently guest conducts, adjudicates and teaches master classes
in the U.S. and internationally. She conducted Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, and The Juilliard
Trombone Choir on a compact disc recording released by the International Trombone Association in 1999 and now available as
Beyond the End of the Century through Summit Records. Miss Allen collaborated with Mr. Alessi again another Summit
recording, Trombonastics.
As a composer and arranger,
her music has been premiered, performed and recorded by members of the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San
Francisco Symphony, the Washington Opera Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Brazilian Symphony
Orchestra, The Juilliard Trombone Choir, The U.S. Army Band, The U.S. Army Field Band, and The U.S. Military Academy Band.
Her music has been published by Southern Music, Ludwig Music and TRN Music. A member of ASCAP, she is a Board Member for the
World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) and a former Board Member for the Conductors Guild.
Miss Allen studied French horn and conducting and earned a Bachelor of Music
Education degree and a Master of Music degree in Performance from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and
a Diploma in Wind Conducting from the University of Calgary. She also completed an internship in Performance Activities at
Juilliard.
