Betty Allen
Encyclopedia
Betty Allen was a renowned American opera
tic mezzo-soprano
who had an active international singing career during the 1950s through the 1970s. In the latter part of her career her voice acquired a contralto
-like darkening, which can be heard on her recording of Sergei Prokofiev
’s Alexander Nevsky
with conductor Eugene Ormandy
and the Philadelphia Orchestra
. She was known for her collaborations with American composers, such as Leonard Bernstein
, Aaron Copland
, David Diamond
, Ned Rorem
, and Virgil Thomson
among others.
Allen was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. She was greatly admired by Bernstein and the conductor notably chose her to be the featured soloist for his final performances as music director of the New York Philharmonic
in 1973. After her singing career ended, she became a lauded voice teacher and arts administrator.
, Allen's father was a college educated math teacher who worked in a steel mill as racial prejudice prevented him from being hired in the public school system during the 1930s. Her mother earned extra money for the family by washing other people's laundry. When she was 12, her mother died of cancer. Afterwords her father fell into depression and alcoholism, causing Allen to leave home as a young teanager by her own choice. She spent the rest of her youth living in foster homes.
In 1943 Allen entered Wilberforce College
in Xenia, Ohio
where she majored in languages. While there she was encouraged to pursue a singing career by tenor Theodor Heimann. Heimann also got her involved with the school's choir, whose membership also included a young Leontyne Price
. Price and Allen became friends while singing in the choir together. After graduating she entered Connecticut's Hartford School of Music in 1947 on a scholarship where she earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance. After graduating she moved to New York City where she continued with further studies under Sarah Peck More, Paul Ulanowsky
, and Zinka Milanov
.
's Berkshire Music Center. At Tanglewood, she was chosen by Leonard Bernstein to be the mezzo-soprano soloist in a presentation of his Jeremiah Symphony
with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
. She made her opera début the following year as the Commère in Virgil Thomson
’s Four Saints in Three Acts
at the August Wilson Theatre
in a production mounted by the American National Theater and Academy
. She later recorded that role for the opera's first complete recording. In 1952 she won the Marian Anderson Award after winning its namesake's singing competition in Philadelphia.
Allen's next forray into opera came on June 6, 1954 when she participated in the world premiere of Sam Raphling
's Tin Pan Alley on a radio broadcast on WNYC
. On July 1, 1954 she sang the part of Prince Orlofsky in a concert version of Johann Strauss II
's Die Fledermaus
at the Lewisohn Stadium
under conductor Tibor Kozma
. On October 28, 1954 she made her New York City Opera
(NYCO) debut as Queenie in Show Boat
. She spent the rest of the 1954-1955 season performing in a tour of France and North Africa after being selected by the National Music League
and the Jeunesses Musicales International to participate in an artist exchange program between the United States and France.
In January 1955 Allen sang the part of the Israelite Messenger in Handel
's Judas Maccabaeus with tenor Walter Carringer
in the title role, the Interracial Fellowship Chorus, and conductor Harold Aks. With The Dessoff Choirs and conductor Paul Boepple she was a soloist in Claudio Monteverdi
's Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 in a concert sponsored by the Baron Carlo de Ferraris Salzano, Consul General of Italy at Carnegie Hall
on April 28, 1955. She then spent the next several months on a European recital tour where she was received warmly.
On January 14, 1957 Allen excited much attention for her portrayal of the title heroine in Arthur Honegger
's Judith in a concert performance of the work with the American Concert Choir and Orchestra under conductor Margaret Hillis
at Town Hall
. Critic Edward Downes
said of her performance, "Allen sang the music of the first two acts without apparent effort. Her voice had a rich, true mezzo-soprano quality with a brilliant top, and dark reedy chest tones. It was so beautifully placed and focused that it gave the impression of being larger than it was. Her piano and even pianissimo singing had the velvet quality that carries so beautifully through an auditorium. She was a figure of refal dignity, yet she showed dramatic temperament, too." In December 1957 she was a soloist in the Oratorio Society of New York
's performances of Handel's Messiah
.
In January 1958 Allen made her New York recital debut at Town Hall to a warm reception. The following March she gave a critically acclaimed performance of Ernest Chausson
's Chanson perpétuelle
and Maurice Ravel
's Chansons madécasses with the New York Chamber Music Ensemble and pianist Leonid Hambro
. In December 1958 she sang the world premiere of Julia Perry
's Stabat Mater in a paring with the setting by Antonio Vivaldi
.
's Johannes Passion
, Bach's St Matthew Passion, Bach's Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen, Beethoven
's Symphony No. 9
, Berg
's Four Songs, Op. 2, both of Berg's settings of Theodor Storm
's Schliesse mir die Augen beide
, Joseph Haydn
's She Never Told Her Love, Liszt
's Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth, Mahler
's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
, Mahler's Symphony No. 3
, Mahler's Symphony No. 8
, Franz Schubert
's Die junge Nonne, Schubert's Erlkönig, Schubert's Winterreise
, Stravinsky
's A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer, and The Star-Spangled Banner
among others. After an eleven year absence she returned for one last performance with the orchestra in 1986.
In 1961 Allen sang Teresa to the Amina of Joan Sutherland
in the American Opera Society
's production of La sonnambula
at Carnegie Hall. She performed with the AOS again the following year as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
with Alexander Young
as Tom Rakewell, John Reardon as Nick Shadow, and Judith Raskin
as Anne Trulove. She sang the role of Armando di Gondì in Gaetano Donizetti
's Maria di Rohan
with the AOS in February 1963 with Ilvo Ligabue in the title role and Lino Puglisi as Enrico. In March 1963 she sang Juno in Handel's Semele with conductor Johannes Somary and the Amor Artis choir and orchestra. Soprano Helen Boatwright
was in the title role, Donald Gramm
sang Cadmus and Somnus, and Blake Stern
was Jupiter. She returned to AOS again in 1965 to sing Zaida in Rossini's Il turco in Italia
with Giorgio Tadeo as Selim, Judith Raskin as Fiorilla, Elfego Esparza as Don Geronio, Jerold Siena as Narciso, and Sherrill Milnes
as Prosdocimo. That year she also portrayed Clitemnestre in Gluck
's Iphigénie en Aulide
at the AOS with Christa Ludwig
in the title role, Richard Cassilly
as Achille, and Walter Berry as Agamemnon.
Allen appeared in two operas at the Midsummer Musical Festival at Philharmonic Hall
in the summer of 1963. In July she sang Dorabella in Mozart
's Così fan tutte
under the baton of Paul Callaway
. Also in the cast were Martina Arroyo
as Vitellia, David Lloyd
as Titus, Beverly Wolff
as Sextus, Margaret Kalil as Servilia, and David Clatworthy as Publius. In August Allen portrayed the Female Chorus in Benjamin Britten
's The Rape of Lucretia with Lili Chookasian
in the title role, William Greene as the Male Chorus, Joan Caplan as Bianca, Joan Gavoorian as Lucia, Ara Berberian
as Collatinus, David Clatworthy as Tarquinius, and Ron Bottcher
as Junius.
Allen had a major triumph in 1964 as Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex
at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires
. She made her San Francisco Opera
debut two years later as Azucena in Il trovatore
with McHenry Boatwright
as the Count di Luna, later reprising that role with the company in 1971. Engagements soon followed at the Canadian Opera Company
(1971), the Palacio de Bellas Artes
(1971), and the Washington National Opera
(1972). She was committed to the New York City Opera from 1973-1975 where her roles included Azucena, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff
, Jocasta in Oedipus rex
, and Eurycleia in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
.
At the Santa Fe Opera
Allen sang Pythia in Aribert Reimann
's Melusine
and Genevieve in Claude Debussy
's Pelléas et Mélisande
in 1972. She returned to that house in 1975 to portray Mistress Quickly and the grandmother in Manuel de Falla
's La vida breve
. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
as the Commère on February 20, 1973 in a cast that included Clamma Dale
as St. Teresa I, David Britton as St. Stephen, and Barbara Hendricks
as St. Settlement. She was invited to sing at Mexico´s city for Casals´hommage in The Manger. In 1975 she sang Monisha in the first fully staged production of Scott Joplin
’s Treemonisha
at the Houston Grand Opera
. She portrayed the role again in the Fall of 1975 at the Kennedy Center and in 1976 in New York City. Other roles in her repertoire included Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito
, the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas
, and Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
.
Allen was also highly active internationally as a concert singer and recitalist during the 1960s and 1970s. She made appearances at the Caramoor
, Casals
, Cincinnati May
, Marlboro, Ravinia, Saratoga, and Tanglewood Music Festival
s. She appeared with a number of notable orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra
and the American
, Boston
, Chicago
, and Cincinnati
symphony orchestras to name just a few. Her concert work led to collaborations with such conductors as Pierre Boulez
, Pablo Casals
, Edo de Waart
, Antal Doráti
, István Kertész, Rafael Kubelík
, Erich Leinsdorf
, Lorin Maazel
, Charles Munch
, Eugene Ormandy
, Seiji Ozawa
, Georg Solti
, Leopold Stokowski
and Enrique Gimeno
. She also appeared in recitals throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
. She also served on the faculties of both the Curtis Institute of Music
(masterclasses since 1987) and the North Carolina School of the Arts
(1978-1987).
In 1979 Allen became the executive director of the Harlem School of the Arts, later becoming president in 1992. In September 1989 she became the first American to teach a masterclass at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory
through a cultural exchange program with the Harlem School of the Arts. She was also active as an adjudicator for many vocal competitions, such as the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, the Young Concert Artists
, and the Dutch International Vocal Competition in ´s Hertogenbosch among others. She died in Valhalla, New York
at the age of 82.
Allen was also active as a member of the boards of numerous arts organizations, including the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Carnegie Hall
, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the Manhattan School of Music, Arts and Business Council, the American Arts Alliance, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Symphony Orchestra of the New York City Housing Authority, the Independent School Orchestras, and the Children’s Storefront and Theatre Development Fund. For many year she co-chaired the Harlem Arts Advocacy Coalition and the Schomburg Commission. She was also a member of the New York City Advisory Committee for Cultural Affairs.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
who had an active international singing career during the 1950s through the 1970s. In the latter part of her career her voice acquired a contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
-like darkening, which can be heard on her recording of Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
’s Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev)
Alexander Nevsky is the score for the 1938 Sergei Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky, composed by Sergei Prokofiev. He later rearranged the music in the form of a cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra...
with conductor Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
and the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
. She was known for her collaborations with American composers, such as Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, David Diamond
David Diamond
David Diamond is the name of:* David Diamond , American composer* David Diamond * David Diamond , American screenwriter* David Diamond, frontman and songwriter with Canadian band The Kings...
, Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
, and Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
among others.
Allen was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. She was greatly admired by Bernstein and the conductor notably chose her to be the featured soloist for his final performances as music director of the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
in 1973. After her singing career ended, she became a lauded voice teacher and arts administrator.
Early life and education
Born Elizabeth Louise Allen, (or Betty Lou) in Campbell, Ohio, near YoungstownYoungstown
Youngstown may refer to:A place*Canada**Britannia Youngstown, Edmonton, Alberta**Youngstown, Alberta*United States**Youngstown, Florida**Youngstown, Indiana**Youngstown, New York**Youngstown, Ohio***Youngstown State University...
, Allen's father was a college educated math teacher who worked in a steel mill as racial prejudice prevented him from being hired in the public school system during the 1930s. Her mother earned extra money for the family by washing other people's laundry. When she was 12, her mother died of cancer. Afterwords her father fell into depression and alcoholism, causing Allen to leave home as a young teanager by her own choice. She spent the rest of her youth living in foster homes.
In 1943 Allen entered Wilberforce College
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University is a private, coed, liberal arts historically black university located in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans...
in Xenia, Ohio
Xenia, Ohio
Xenia is a city in and the county seat of Greene County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio 21 miles from Dayton and is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area...
where she majored in languages. While there she was encouraged to pursue a singing career by tenor Theodor Heimann. Heimann also got her involved with the school's choir, whose membership also included a young Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
. Price and Allen became friends while singing in the choir together. After graduating she entered Connecticut's Hartford School of Music in 1947 on a scholarship where she earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance. After graduating she moved to New York City where she continued with further studies under Sarah Peck More, Paul Ulanowsky
Paul Ulanowsky
Paul Alexander Theodore Ulanowsky was an Austrian-American pianist, accompanist, vocal coach, and music educator of Austrian and Ukrainian decent. He began his career as the pianist for the Vienna Philharmonic from 1927-1935...
, and Zinka Milanov
Zinka Milanov
Zinka Milanov was a Croatian-born operatic spinto soprano who had a major career centred on the New York Metropolitan Opera.-Biography:...
.
Early singing career:1950s
Allen's first major performance came in 1951 while studying at the Tanglewood Music FestivalTanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
's Berkshire Music Center. At Tanglewood, she was chosen by Leonard Bernstein to be the mezzo-soprano soloist in a presentation of his Jeremiah Symphony
Symphony No. 1 (Bernstein)
Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 Jeremiah was composed in 1942. Jeremiah is a programmatic work, following the Biblical story of the prophet Jeremiah. It uses texts from the Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible...
with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
. She made her opera début the following year as the Commère in Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
’s Four Saints in Three Acts
Four Saints in Three Acts
Four Saints in Three Acts is an opera by American composer Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Written in 1927-8, it contains about 20 saints, and is in at least four acts...
at the August Wilson Theatre
August Wilson Theatre
The August Wilson Theatre, located at 245 West 52nd Street in New York City, is a Broadway theatre.Designed by architects C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and constructed by the Theatre Guild, it opened as the Guild Theatre in 1925 with a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and...
in a production mounted by the American National Theater and Academy
American National Theater and Academy
The American National Theatre and Academy is a non-profit theatre producer and training organization that was established in 1935 to be the official United States national theatre that would be an alternative to the for-profit Broadway houses of the day....
. She later recorded that role for the opera's first complete recording. In 1952 she won the Marian Anderson Award after winning its namesake's singing competition in Philadelphia.
Allen's next forray into opera came on June 6, 1954 when she participated in the world premiere of Sam Raphling
Sam Raphling
Sam Raphling was an American composer and pianist. He studied under Artur Schnabel at the University of Michigan.He wrote in a variety of musical genres, including orchestral works, chamber pieces, and vocal art songs; the latter of which remain his most notable legacy...
's Tin Pan Alley on a radio broadcast on WNYC
WNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
. On July 1, 1954 she sang the part of Prince Orlofsky in a concert version of Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
at the Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York. It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973.-History:...
under conductor Tibor Kozma
Tibor Kozma
Tibor Kozma was an American conductor, pianist, accompanist, and vocal coach of Hungarian birth. He began his career as an opera conductor in Europe and Ecuador before emigrating to the United States in 1941; ultimately becoming a United States citizen in 1945...
. On October 28, 1954 she made her New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
(NYCO) debut as Queenie in Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
. She spent the rest of the 1954-1955 season performing in a tour of France and North Africa after being selected by the National Music League
National Music League
The National Music League was an American arts organization based in New York City that was active during the 1920s through the 1960s. Founded as a non-profit institution in June 1925, the organization was dedicated to supporting and furthering the careers of talented young American classical...
and the Jeunesses Musicales International to participate in an artist exchange program between the United States and France.
In January 1955 Allen sang the part of the Israelite Messenger in Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Judas Maccabaeus with tenor Walter Carringer
Walter Carringer
Walter Carringer is an American classical tenor who had an active career in operas, concerts, and recitals during the 1950s and 1960s. He was twice the recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation award and was a winner of the American Federation of Music Clubs singing competition...
in the title role, the Interracial Fellowship Chorus, and conductor Harold Aks. With The Dessoff Choirs and conductor Paul Boepple she was a soloist in Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
's Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 in a concert sponsored by the Baron Carlo de Ferraris Salzano, Consul General of Italy at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
on April 28, 1955. She then spent the next several months on a European recital tour where she was received warmly.
On January 14, 1957 Allen excited much attention for her portrayal of the title heroine in Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
's Judith in a concert performance of the work with the American Concert Choir and Orchestra under conductor Margaret Hillis
Margaret Hillis
Margaret Hillis was an American conductor. She was the founder and first director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.-Life:...
at Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
. Critic Edward Downes
Edward Downes
Sir Edward Thomas "Ted" Downes, CBE was an English conductor, specialising in opera.He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his long working relationship with the BBC Philharmonic and for working with the Netherlands...
said of her performance, "Allen sang the music of the first two acts without apparent effort. Her voice had a rich, true mezzo-soprano quality with a brilliant top, and dark reedy chest tones. It was so beautifully placed and focused that it gave the impression of being larger than it was. Her piano and even pianissimo singing had the velvet quality that carries so beautifully through an auditorium. She was a figure of refal dignity, yet she showed dramatic temperament, too." In December 1957 she was a soloist in the Oratorio Society of New York
Oratorio Society of New York
The Oratorio Society of New York is a non-profit membership organization which performs choral music in the oratorio style. The Society was founded in 1873 by conductor Leopold Damrosch, and it is New York City's second oldest cultural organization...
's performances of Handel's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
.
In January 1958 Allen made her New York recital debut at Town Hall to a warm reception. The following March she gave a critically acclaimed performance of Ernest Chausson
Ernest Chausson
Amédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...
's Chanson perpétuelle
Chanson perpétuelle
The Chanson perpétuelle, op. 37 is a mélodie by Ernest Chausson, written in December 1898. It is one of the major vocal-orchestral works of Chausson, along with the Poème de l'amour et de la mer. Besides the better-known version for soprano and orchestra, Chausson also wrote a version for...
and Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
's Chansons madécasses with the New York Chamber Music Ensemble and pianist Leonid Hambro
Leonid Hambro
Leonid Hambro was an American concert pianist and composer.-Life:He was the son of immigrant Russian Jews; his father was a pianist accompanying silent films....
. In December 1958 she sang the world premiere of Julia Perry
Julia Perry
Julia Amanda Perry was an African-American composer of classical music.Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Perry studied voice, piano and composition at the Westminster Choir College 1943-48 and came to prominence as a result of a scholarship to the Berkshire Music Center where she was a student of Luigi...
's Stabat Mater in a paring with the setting by Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
.
Later singing career:1960s and 1970s
On May 5, 1960 Allen began her long partnership with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in a concert performance of Four Saints in Three Acts. She was a regular guest artist with the orchestra through 1975, appearing as a soloist in performances of such works as Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Johannes Passion
Johannes Passion
The St John Passion , BWV 245, is a sacred oratorio of Johann Sebastian Bach from the Passions. The original Latin title Passio secundum Johannem translates to "The Suffering According to John" and is rendered in English also as St. John Passion and in German as Johannespassion...
, Bach's St Matthew Passion, Bach's Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Symphony No. 9
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
, Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
's Four Songs, Op. 2, both of Berg's settings of Theodor Storm
Theodor Storm
Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm , commonly known as Theodor Storm, was a German writer.-Life:Storm was born in Husum, at the west coast of Schleswig than an independent duchy and ruled by the king of Denmark...
's Schliesse mir die Augen beide
Schliesse mir die Augen beide
Schliesse mir die Augen beide is a poem by Theodor Storm, twice set to music by Alban Berg. Berg composed his first setting in 1907, dedicating it to his future wife. The second version was composed in 1925 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Universal Edition music publisher...
, Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's She Never Told Her Love, Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth, Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen is Gustav Mahler's first song cycle. While he had previously written other lieder, they were grouped by source of text or time of composition as opposed to common theme...
, Mahler's Symphony No. 3
Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1893 and 1896. It is his longest piece and is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, with a typical performance lasting around ninety to one hundred minutes.- Structure :...
, Mahler's Symphony No. 8
Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is often performed with fewer than a...
, Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Die junge Nonne, Schubert's Erlkönig, Schubert's Winterreise
Winterreise
Winterreise is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert , a setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two great song cycles on Müller's poems, the earlier being Die schöne Müllerin...
, Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer, and The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
among others. After an eleven year absence she returned for one last performance with the orchestra in 1986.
In 1961 Allen sang Teresa to the Amina of Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
in the American Opera Society
American Opera Society
The American Opera Society was a New York City based musical organization that presented concert and semi-staged performances of operas between 1951 and 1970...
's production of La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
at Carnegie Hall. She performed with the AOS again the following year as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
with Alexander Young
Alexander Young (tenor)
Alexander Basil Young was an English tenor who had an active career performing in concerts and operas from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. He was particularly admired for his performances in the operas of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini.In 1953 he performed the role of Tom Rakewell in the...
as Tom Rakewell, John Reardon as Nick Shadow, and Judith Raskin
Judith Raskin
Judith Raskin was an American lyric soprano, renowned for her fine voice as well as her acting.Raskin was born in New York to Harry A. Raskin, a high school music teacher, and Lillian Raskin, a grade school teacher. Her father aroused her childhood interest in music, leading her to study violin...
as Anne Trulove. She sang the role of Armando di Gondì in Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Maria di Rohan
Maria di Rohan
Maria di Rohan is a melodramma tragico, or tragic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Salvadore Cammarano, after Lockroy and Edmond Badon's Un duel sous le cardinal de Richelieu, which had played in Paris in 1832.- Roles :- Synopsis :The comte de...
with the AOS in February 1963 with Ilvo Ligabue in the title role and Lino Puglisi as Enrico. In March 1963 she sang Juno in Handel's Semele with conductor Johannes Somary and the Amor Artis choir and orchestra. Soprano Helen Boatwright
Helen Boatwright
Helen Boatwright was an American soprano who specialized in the performance of American song, recorded the first full-length album of songs by composer Charles Ives and had a career that spanned more than five decades....
was in the title role, Donald Gramm
Donald Gramm
Donald Gramm was an American bass-baritone whose career was divided between opera and concert performances. His appearances were primarily limited to the United States, which at the time was unusual for an American singer...
sang Cadmus and Somnus, and Blake Stern
Blake Stern
Blake Stern was an American tenor, best known as an oratorio singer, and a professor emeritus of music at Yale University where he taught voice....
was Jupiter. She returned to AOS again in 1965 to sing Zaida in Rossini's Il turco in Italia
Il turco in Italia
Il turco in Italia is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The Italian-language libretto was written by Felice Romani...
with Giorgio Tadeo as Selim, Judith Raskin as Fiorilla, Elfego Esparza as Don Geronio, Jerold Siena as Narciso, and Sherrill Milnes
Sherrill Milnes
Sherrill Milnes is an American operatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera....
as Prosdocimo. That year she also portrayed Clitemnestre in Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
's Iphigénie en Aulide
Iphigénie en Aulide
Iphigénie en Aulide is an opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the first work he wrote for the Paris stage. The libretto was written by Leblanc du Roullet and was based on Jean Racine's tragedy Iphigénie...
at the AOS with Christa Ludwig
Christa Ludwig
Christa Ludwig is a retired German mezzo-soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, Lieder, oratorio and other major religious works like masses and passions, and solos contained in symphonic literature...
in the title role, Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
as Achille, and Walter Berry as Agamemnon.
Allen appeared in two operas at the Midsummer Musical Festival at Philharmonic Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
in the summer of 1963. In July she sang Dorabella in Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
under the baton of Paul Callaway
Paul Callaway
Paul Smith Callaway was a prominent American organist and choral conductor, particularly well-known for his thirty-eight years at the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C., between 1939–1977...
. Also in the cast were Martina Arroyo
Martina Arroyo
Martina Arroyo is an operatic soprano of Puerto Rican and African-American descent who had a major international opera career during the 1960s through the 1980s...
as Vitellia, David Lloyd
David Lloyd (tenor)
David George Lloyd was a Welsh singer. Lloyd, a tenor, was noted for being one of the first Welsh solo singers to seek a broader audience beyond Wales, in the concert halls and recording studios of England, mainland Europe, and North America.During his lifetime, Lloyd was renowned in opera,...
as Titus, Beverly Wolff
Beverly Wolff
Beverly Wolff was an American mezzo-soprano who had an active career in concerts and operas from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. She performed a broad repertoire which encompassed operatic and concert works in many languages and from a variety of musical periods...
as Sextus, Margaret Kalil as Servilia, and David Clatworthy as Publius. In August Allen portrayed the Female Chorus in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's The Rape of Lucretia with Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian is an American contralto who has appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses. She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties...
in the title role, William Greene as the Male Chorus, Joan Caplan as Bianca, Joan Gavoorian as Lucia, Ara Berberian
Ara Berberian
Ara Berberian was an American operatic bass singer.Berberian made his debut in 1958 with the Turnau Opera in Woodstock, New York, as Don Magnifico in Rossini's La Cenerentola. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1979 as Zacharie in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Le prophète...
as Collatinus, David Clatworthy as Tarquinius, and Ron Bottcher
Ron Bottcher
Ron Bottcher was an American operatic baritone who was actively performing with both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1960s. A native of Sandpoint, Idaho, he earned music degrees from the University of Montana and the Curtis Institute of Music...
as Junius.
Allen had a major triumph in 1964 as Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex
Oedipus rex (opera)
Oedipus rex is an "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin...
at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. She made her San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
debut two years later as Azucena in Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
with McHenry Boatwright
McHenry Boatwright
McHenry Boatwright was an American operatic bass-baritone and singing teacher.He was born in Tennille, Georgia, in 1928, and studied piano and voice at the New England Conservatory, graduating in 1954. He made his debut at Tanglewood in 1953...
as the Count di Luna, later reprising that role with the company in 1971. Engagements soon followed at the Canadian Opera Company
Canadian Opera Company
The Canadian Opera Company is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and the third largest producer of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.-History:For 40 years until...
(1971), the Palacio de Bellas Artes
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
(1971), and the Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera
The Washington National Opera is an opera company in Washington, D.C., USA. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performances are now given in the Opera House of the John F...
(1972). She was committed to the New York City Opera from 1973-1975 where her roles included Azucena, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
, Jocasta in Oedipus rex
Oedipus rex (opera)
Oedipus rex is an "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin...
, and Eurycleia in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria is an opera in a prologue and five acts , set by Claudio Monteverdi to a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro. The opera was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1639–1640 carnival season...
.
At the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
Allen sang Pythia in Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann is a German opera composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of King Lear was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who sang the title role....
's Melusine
Melusine
Melusine is a figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down...
and Genevieve in Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
in 1972. She returned to that house in 1975 to portray Mistress Quickly and the grandmother in Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
's La vida breve
La vida breve
La vida breve is an opera in two acts and four scenes by Manuel de Falla to an original Spanish libretto by Carlos Fernández-Shaw...
. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
as the Commère on February 20, 1973 in a cast that included Clamma Dale
Clamma Dale
Clamma Dale is an African-American operatic soprano. She is best known for portraying the role of Bess in the highly successful 1976 Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess...
as St. Teresa I, David Britton as St. Stephen, and Barbara Hendricks
Barbara Hendricks
Barbara Hendricks is an African American operatic soprano and concert singer. Hendricks has lived in Europe since 1977, and in Switzerland on Lake Geneva since 1985, She is a citizen of Sweden.-Early life and education:...
as St. Settlement. She was invited to sing at Mexico´s city for Casals´hommage in The Manger. In 1975 she sang Monisha in the first fully staged production of Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
’s Treemonisha
Treemonisha
Treemonisha is an opera composed by the famed African-American ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin did not refer to it as such, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "ragtime opera"...
at the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
. She portrayed the role again in the Fall of 1975 at the Kennedy Center and in 1976 in New York City. Other roles in her repertoire included Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
, the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...
, and Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
.
Allen was also highly active internationally as a concert singer and recitalist during the 1960s and 1970s. She made appearances at the Caramoor
Caramoor International Music Festival
The Caramoor International Music Festival is a summer music festival founded in 1945 that is held on the estate of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Inc., which includes a Mediterranean-style stucco villa and is located about north of New York City in Katonah, New York.The Caramoor...
, Casals
Casals Festival
The Casals Festival is a classical music event celebrated every year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in honor of world renowned musician Pablo Casals.-Background:...
, Cincinnati May
Cincinnati May Festival
The Cincinnati May Festival is a two-week annual choral festival, held during the last two weekends in May in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The festival's roots go back to the 1840s, when Saengerfests were held in that city, bringing singers from all over the United States and abroad to perform large...
, Marlboro, Ravinia, Saratoga, and Tanglewood Music Festival
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
s. She appeared with a number of notable orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
and the American
American Symphony Orchestra
The American Symphony Orchestra is a New York-based American orchestra founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski, then aged 80. Following Maestro Stokowski's departure, Kazuyoshi Akiyama was appointed Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra from 1973-1978. Music Directors during the early...
, Boston
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
, Chicago
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
, and Cincinnati
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
As the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours...
symphony orchestras to name just a few. Her concert work led to collaborations with such conductors as Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...
, Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart
Edo de Waart is a Dutch conductor, and the Music Director of both the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra....
, Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
, István Kertész, Rafael Kubelík
Rafael Kubelík
Rafael Jeroným Kubelík was a Czech conductor and composer.-Early life:Kubelík was born in Býchory, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, today's Czech Republic. He was the sixth child of the Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelík, whom the younger Kubelík described as "a kind of god to me." His mother was a Hungarian...
, Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
, Lorin Maazel
Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...
, Charles Munch
Charles Munch
Charles Munch may refer to:*Charles Munch , American artist*Charles Munch , orchestral conductorSee also:*Charles Munch discography, recordings of Munch, the conductor...
, Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
, Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa
is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...
, Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
and Enrique Gimeno
Enrique Gimeno
Enrique Gimeno was a Spanish composer, conductor and pianist....
. She also appeared in recitals throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
Later life and career
Allen's professional singing career was cut short by chronic lung problems which she blamed on her exposure to the Campbell, Ohio steel mills in her childhood. Although she made a handful of concert appearances into the 1980s, her opera career was over by the late 1970s. From 1969 up until her death she served on the faculty of the Manhattan School of MusicManhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
. She also served on the faculties of both the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
(masterclasses since 1987) and the North Carolina School of the Arts
North Carolina School of the Arts
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...
(1978-1987).
In 1979 Allen became the executive director of the Harlem School of the Arts, later becoming president in 1992. In September 1989 she became the first American to teach a masterclass at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...
through a cultural exchange program with the Harlem School of the Arts. She was also active as an adjudicator for many vocal competitions, such as the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, the Young Concert Artists
Young Concert Artists
Young Concert Artists is a New York City-based non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting the careers of talented young classical musicians from all over the world...
, and the Dutch International Vocal Competition in ´s Hertogenbosch among others. She died in Valhalla, New York
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place that is located within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, in Westchester County. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
at the age of 82.
Allen was also active as a member of the boards of numerous arts organizations, including the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the Manhattan School of Music, Arts and Business Council, the American Arts Alliance, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Symphony Orchestra of the New York City Housing Authority, the Independent School Orchestras, and the Children’s Storefront and Theatre Development Fund. For many year she co-chaired the Harlem Arts Advocacy Coalition and the Schomburg Commission. She was also a member of the New York City Advisory Committee for Cultural Affairs.
Awards and honors
- Marian Anderson Award (1952)
- Martha Baird Rockefeller Music Fund Award (1953)
- John Hay Whitney Grant (1953)
- Ford Foundation Grant (1954)
- Honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Wittenberg UniversityWittenberg UniversityWittenberg University is a private four-year liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio serving 2,000 full-time students representing 37 states and approximately 30 foreign countries...
(1971) - Honorary doctorate of music from Union CollegeUnion CollegeUnion College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...
(1981) - American Eagle Award from the National Music CouncilNational Music CouncilThe National Music Council of the United States is a United States national organization listed under Title 36 of the United States Code, founded in 1940 and chartered by the 84th Congress in 1956. The Council is composed of organizations of national scope interested in the development of music...
(1988) - Philadelphia National Bank Distinguished Artist of the Year (1989)
- Exceptional Achievement Award from the Women’s Project and Productions
- First recipient of the ISO Award from the Independent School Orchestras
- Laurel Leaf AwardLaurel Leaf AwardThe Laurel Leaf Award recognizes the achievement of an individual or group in encouraging and fostering American music. The award has been presented annually by the American Composers Alliance since 1951...
from the American Composers AllianceAmerican Composers AllianceThe American Composers Alliance is an American membership organization dedicated to the publishing and promoting of American contemporary classical music. Founded in 1937 by Aaron Copland, Milton Adolphus and others, it is the oldest national organization of its kind, and represents over 200...