Ted Allen’s (b. 1957) composition process begins with the same question he asked himself each morning of his teaching career: “What is the coolest thing that we can do today with this group of musicians?”
Ted’s music has been performed by San Francisco Choral Artists, San Francisco Bach Choir, San Francisco Girls Chorus, New Jersey All State Chorus, Galax Quartet, and the University of South Dakota Chamber Orchestra among others. His string metal composition, Fire in the Forge, has been a best seller in the school music market for 10 years.
During the 1980's and 1990's Ted was a composer, arranger and copyist in the commercial music business. He worked on the music preparation staff of 25 Broadway shows, wrote orchestrations for the New York Pops Orchestra and the collaboration between Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony, and composed music for video games, including "Pink Goes to Hollywood," "Gex: Enter the Gecko," and "Evander Hollyfield's Real Deal Boxing." In 1999 Ted began a second career teaching high school music at Skyline and Oakland Technical High Schools in Oakland and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco.
Ted's principal teachers include Richard Loucks, Margery Briggs, Karl Kohn, David Noon, Joan Pannetti, Fredric Rzewski, Martin Bresnick, Nicholas Maw and Jacob Druckman. His work has been supported by ASCAP Grants to Young Composers, New York Foundation for the Arts, and IntermusicSF. He is published by Grand Mesa Music, Grand Mesa Strings, C. Alan, and Walton Music.
Ted lives a few miles outside of Santa Fe, NM with the Baroque violinist Carla Moore, his wife of 35 years,
