Andrew Allen
"The wonderful and innovative Key Leaves line of products helps keep my saxophones in top shape: No stuck pads on-stage at critical moments, and far fewer trips to the repair shop! Key Leaves is the saxophonist's best friend!"
- Andrew Allen (Tenor Saxophone Carolina Saxophone Quartet & Georgia College & State University Saxophone Professor)
Andrew J. Allen is “a master of all sizes of saxophone.” (The Instrumentalist, April 2018) In response to his New York solo debut, the Examiner opined that he had “performed brilliantly,” and the Wichita Falls Times-Record News has praised the "savory warmth” of his tone, while The Saxophonist has lauded his "virtuosic saxophone performance,” and The Saxophone Symposium has cited his “complete control of the instrument.” In demand as a soloist and chamber musician, Allen has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Croatia. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra, the Oklahoma State University Chamber Orchestra, the University of Arkansas Wind Symphony, and the Midwestern State University Wind Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble. More than two dozen works have been commissioned and premiered by him from such composers as François Rossé, Robert Lemay, Fang Man, Jesse Jones, Greg Simon, and Jay Batzner. His recordings include Step Inside: New American Music for Saxophone and Percussion (recorded with percussionist Gordon Hicken) and The Avenging Spirit (as soprano saxophonist of the SAGA Quartet), both on the Equilibrium label. He is also a featured soloist on Spring Shadows: Electronic Solo Works by Anne Neikirk on Ravello Records.
Allen has received accolades as a quarter-finalist of both the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the International Saxophone Symposium and Competition. As an ensemble musician, he has performed with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra, the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, the Bryan Symphony Orchestra, the Midland Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Augusta, and the South Carolina Philharmonic. Present chamber ensemble activities include the percussion and saxophone group Rogue Two, the flute and saxophone ensemble The Allen Duo, SAGA Quartet, and the Carolina Saxophone Quartet. Equally adept as a jazz saxophonist, Allen has served as a sideman with Gary Foster, Byron Stripling, Jeff Coffin, R&B luminaries The Temptations, and country music legend Ronnie Milsap.
Allen is one of the most active researchers and public pedagogues of the saxophone today. His articles have appeared in The Instrumentalist, Teaching Music, The Saxophone Symposium, Saxophone Today, The NACWPI Journal, JazzEd, and School Band and Orchestra, among many other publications, and his transcriptions and arrangements are available through Dorn Publications and Lovebird Music. Allen has lectured throughout the United States and abroad, and has presented clinics throughout the country, including at the state music education conventions of Georgia, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas. He is editor of the NACWPI Journal and serves on the editorial board of The Saxophone Symposium.
In the Fall of 2019, Andrew J. Allen joined the faculty of Georgia College & State University as an assistant professor of saxophone and coordinator of woodwinds, brass, & percussion. He has previously served on the faculties of Midwestern State University, Valley City State University, and Claflin University; and he holds degrees from Tennessee Technological University, Central Michigan University, and the University of South Carolina. His primary teachers include Phil Barham, John Nichol, and Clifford Leaman, and he has received additional instruction from Joseph Lulloff at the Brevard Music Center, and Claude Delangle, Vincent David, and Arno Bornkamp at the European University of Saxophone. Allen is a Conn-Selmer Artist-Clinician, a Vandoren Performing Artist, and a Key Leaves endorsing artist, and he performs exclusively on Selmer Paris saxophones and Vandoren mouthpieces, reeds, and ligatures.