Geraldine Allen

Geraldine Allen is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. After award-winning studies, which included a Vaughan Williams Trust scholarship, Geraldine specialised as a solo performer and champion of contemporary music with a worldwide repertoire including work by Australian, Finnish, Russian, Spanish and British composers. She has given frequent broadcasts, had many new works written for her and toured widely as an international soloist. Her work in Spain included several years as Professor of Clarinet for the Spanish National Youth Orchestra.

Geraldine has brought to life a number of highly-deserving works, giving them their first broadcast performances. Among these are works by English composers Sir Arthur Bliss, Sir Edward German, and William Lloyd-Webber. Her concerto performances include live broadcasts with the great Sir Charles Groves and the first broadcast performance of the Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto for Clarinet and Military Band which she performed with the Band of the Blues and Royals.

Not content, however, to confine herself to either stereo-typed programming or traditional audiences, Geraldine has made the ability to invent new musical frameworks and new styles of presentation a hallmark of her career. This particular streak of her originality has resulted in the commissioning of work such as The Roaring Whirl, the creation of a music-theatre piece titled Players’ Worktime and establishing a cross-over clarinet and piano duo called Dizzy Lips, which performed to audiences all over the UK, and even recorded a special interpretation of the BB King standard, Stand By Me.

Geraldine is also recognised for her distinctive and original ideas on technique and interpretation and In her series, Clarinet Realities, she expresses the view that, “The highest art of musical performance is being in the present moment and in discovering inner focus so that the music is expressed through the musician and not by the musician.” This philosophy is central to her recent series of workshops with Sarah Rodgers on Music for Body Mind and Soul which leads participants in an exploration of music beyond the notes and towards an experience of self-awareness.