Virginia
Allen is the Associate Dean for Administration at The Juilliard School in New York City, where she previously taught conducting,
co-founded and conducted the Juilliard Trombone Choir, and served as Executive Director of the Starling-DeLay Symposium on
Violin Studies. She is a former faculty member at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 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, Virginia 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.
Virginia
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. Virginia 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 Carl Fischer, Southern
Music, Ludwig Music, and TRN Music. A member of ASCAP, she is a former for the Conductors Guild and the World Association
for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE).
Virginia 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.
She is currently completing her Doctor of Education in the College Teaching of Music at Teachers College, Columbia University
in New York City. Her dissertation topic is "Developing Expertise in Professional Orchestra Conductors," and her
research interests include faculty developmentand music history topics.
Virginia lives in New York and Philadelphia with her husband Otto-Werner Mueller and their cat
Gracie.