Photo: Daria Kolacka
Ann Allen is a specialist player of early wood wind instruments and also works as an opera director and has created a new style of atmospherically presented concerts.
She has studied at Manchester University, Royal Academy of Music, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Sorbonne Paris and currently plays Baroque Oboe, Shawms, Doucaines, Recorders, Dulcians and Bagpipes. She freelances with leading ensembles and orchestras throughout Europe including Academy for Ancient Music, Ad Fontes and L'arpa Festante. She recently appeared at the Coliseum in DR DEE the rock opera by Damon Albarn and has performed at the GLOBE THEATRE in the award winning version of RICHARD III.
She set up the medieval group MEDIVA while at the RAM which has gone on to reach the finals of several prestigious competition as well as recording four CDs. She also directs the baroque ensemble IL BACIO and jointly runs the double reed ensemble SYRINX.
After her musical training, her love of the stage inspired her to direct several operas in the UK and Switzerland and set up her own festival mixing early music with modern music and presenting it in new and unusual ways. This festival NOX ILLUMINATA has been running for seven years in Basel, Switzerland, as well as four years in St Pölten, Austria and three years as the concert series ILLUMINATIONEN at the Burghof Lörrach, Germany.