Susie Allen
Susie Allan studied as a scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, and specialized in accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Prizes include Accompanist of the Year (1993), the Gerald Moore Award (1994). She also received a Special Mention in the 1997 Wigmore International Song Competition and in 1999 she was awarded a scholarship from the Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Fund.
Susie is best-known for her work as a vocal accompanist and has partnered established singers such as William Dazeley, Susan Gritton, Thomas Randle, Nathan Berg, Gwynne Hughes-Jones, Roderick Williams, Garry Magee and Stefan Loges. At the Wigmore Hall she has played for Catrin Wyn-Davies (broadcast by BBC Wales), Roderick Williams and William Purefoy. Abroad she has given recitals at the Theatre du Chatelet (Nathan Berg) and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (Die Schone Mullerin with William Dazeley). In Britain she has performed at most of the major recital venues and many festivals including the Three Choirs, Covent Garden, Harrogate, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh,and Mananan festivals..She performs frequently in Scotland where she opened the first Highlands and Islands Festival in Inverness with a recital of Burns’ songs with soprano Janis Kelly.
Susie appears regularly on Radio Three, especially the programme ‘Voices’. She has broadcast with Ruth Peel (Brahms), Turid Moberg (settings of Heine), Emma Bell (an all-English programme) and Suzannah Clarke. For television she accompanied Christopher Maltman and Claron McFaddon in ‘Schubert Shorts’ (Channel Four, Schubert Anniversary).
Recent engagements include a recital at the Royal Opera House with mezzo-soprano Tove Dahlberg, a recital with the violinist Jethro Marsh at St. Johns Smith Square, and a tour of Cosi fan tutte for which she was the musical director.
Susie moved from London to South Shropshire in 2002 and recently has appeared in recital more locally, foe example at Kidderminster Town Hall, Warwick, Bishops Castle,Gregynog, and Walcot Hall. She has also directed La Traviata from the keyboard for Opera a la Carte, and most recently recording a disc devoted mainly to songs by Ivor Gurney with the baritone Roderick Williams. Also with Roderick, she is performing a series of English song recitals throughout the UK this season.
She is a Professor of Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music in
London.
