Award-Winning Composer, Blake Allen
Blake Allen
In this profile series, Revry is highlighting authentic contributors to the LGBTQ media and entertainment community. We ask questions to find out who they are and where they are going in the future. The questions remain the same but the answers tell their unique story. It’s time to explore and celebrate true representation beyond the limits of Hollywood.
Blake Allen is an award-winning composer, musician, orchestrator, and educator. Known for his innovative bridging of contemporary music and theatre, Allen's works are "full of yearning and exuberance and affection" with "strings to make you swoon.” Heavily influenced by his Mormon upbringing and the vast, cultural landscapes of his hometown of El Paso, TX, Allen made his professional composer debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2016. Allen's album, SONATAS, debuted #1 on the iTunes Classical Charts, 'Top 40' on the iTunes Top 100 Albums, and #4 on the Billboard Classical Charts. The album features two sonatas: L'ABÎME POUR VIOLON ET PIANO premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017, and MUSIC FOR KELLY was written for the play KELLY that premiered Off-Broadway in 2019. Allen's theatrical shows include: the 'wistful and epic' Americana musical Jaclyn Backhaus' FOLK WANDERING; his autobiographical opera THE SHARDS OF AN HONOR CODE JUNKIE; BOSTON|NEBRASKA, an opera based on Willa Cather’s words and life; HOCKET, a gay fantasia on hard drugs and LIVIN' THE DREAMBOAT with lyricist/book writer Claire Tran. Allen continues to be Tina Burner, Marti Gould Cummings, and Doris Dear's music director. Burner and Allen are releasing an album, MAYBE THIS TIME, for Pride 2021. Cummings and Allen's A VERY MARTI HOLIDAY, raises funds for the Ali Forney Center and was featured on the record-breaking television show SHADE: QUEENS OF NYC. Allen wrote the theme song for DORIS DEAR'S GURL TALK on Broadway on Demand, now in its second season.
What are you best known for?
Being a kind human!; Music directing, arranging, orchestrating the 2019 Off-Broadway revival of the Sherman Brother’s OVER HERE!; My autobiographical album THE SHARDS OF AN HONOR CODE JUNKIE; being a cast member on SHADE: QUEENS OF NYC; touring the world with Tina Burner; merging the genre of musical theatre and opera and classical music into a new genre.
What is the first thing you worked on?
I played in the pit of Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore when I was in High School, also soloed with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra. In NYC, I made my Broadway debut in MISERY and most recently performed viola with the NYC Ballet. I made my professional composer debut at The Met, but my first public performance of a song I arranged was also in High School, and I ended up winning the region award for best composition. I wrote a poem when I was six that was published as well.
What are you working on that no one knows about yet?
A musi-opera based upon the murder from BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, Kate Winslet’s first film. It starts at the murder and tells the story of what happened after. I’m obsessed with the first big aria entitled OH, GIBBOUS MOON. Called OBSESSION. I’m writing 2 short pieces, for voice and piano quintet that I hope to perform and record in the first part of 2022 - called INSOMNIA.