Keith Gates: Music

Kathleen M. Allen received both the B.M. and D.M.A. degrees in vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the M.M. degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD, where she worked closely with the Mâitre of French diction and author of the seminal book Singing in French, Mr. Thomas Grubb.

Performing throughout the U.S. in opera, operetta, musical theater, as well as concert, chamber music, and solo recital, Dr. Allen has been a principal artist with such organizations as Tacoma Opera, Kitsap Peninsula Opera, the Maryland Arts Festival, the University of Wisconsin Opera Theater, the Peabody Opera Theater, the Victorian Lyric Opera Company of Silver Spring, MD, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, the Oshkosh Chamber Singers, the Crane Symphony Orchestra, the Menomenee Falls Symphony Orchestra and the Festival Choir of Madison. She has been fortunate to work with conductors including Benton Hess, Richard Westenberg, Earl Rivers, Stephen Cleobury, Christopher Lanz, Robert Fountain and Karlos Moser.

Favorite roles include Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Alice Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Cathleen in Riders to the Sea, Monica in The Medium, Nina in Song of Norway, as well as the Gilbert and Sullivan heroines Princess Ida and Josephine in HMS Pinafore.

Dr. Allen has served as a Voice Instructor at Pierce College in Tacoma, WA, Dundalk College in Baltimore, the Crane School of Music, of the State University of New York at Potsdam. Her students have won numerous prizes for vocal excellence such as multiple NATS first place winners at the district and regional levels, scholarships, professional debuts with area orchestras, and world premiere operatic and musical theater debuts. Dr. Allen's students have gained entrance to graduate programs at leading conservatories in the country including Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, with significant scholarships.

Dr. Allen most recently joined the faculty at Auburn University as an instructor of voice in both the music and musical theater departments. She specializes in French repertoire, contemporary opera and Baroque music, and is passionate about the care of the professional voice, often referred to as vocology.

While at Crane, Dr. Allen collaborated with colleagues in a variety of musical events including the world premiere of the song cycle This is Just to Say... by composer David Heinick, poetry by William Carlos Williams, excerpts from the Stoned Guest, by P.D.Q. Bach, the song cycle Women's Voices by Ned Rorem, Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben and Ravel's Shéhérazade, with the Crane Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Dr. Allen shared the stage with her students in a program of Broadway and Opera scenes and arias entitled For the Love of Theater, and contributed to composer Keith Gates' memorial concert. She completed her time at Crane with the soprano solos in the Bach Cantata #21 and on the faculty chamber spring recital, singing Ginastera's Cantos del Tucamen.

Dr. Allen has studied vocal technique and repertoire under Elly Ameling, Rudolf Jansen, John Wustman, Adria Firestone, Donna Loewy, DeanWilliamson, William Eddy, William McGraw, Stanley Cornett, Paul Y. Rowe and Ilona Kombrink. Dr. Allen's doctoral dissertation on Carlisle Floyd's monodrama for soprano Flower and Hawk is the definitive scholarly work on the opera, including a transcribed interview with the composer himself.

Upcoming engagements include the faculty recital series, a program for the Auburn's Women's club in January, 2010, the role of the mother in the Auburn Music Department's November 2009 production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and as featured artist on an operatic gala event in October 2009 sponsored by the California Opera Institute.