Ivalah Allen, Associate Professor
Voice
Diction
Contact Information
Email ijallen@fhsu.edu
Phone (785) 628-4281
Office Malloy 239
Dr. Ivalah Allen, soprano, has performed as soloist on the opera, recital, symphonic, and oratorio stage throughout the Midwest, including appearances with Choralfest (Denver, CO), Kansas City Symphony (Kansas City, MO), Miami University (Oxford, OH), Topeka Festival Singers (Topeka, KS) and at Carnegie Hall. Recent performances have included the lead in Puccini's opera Suor Angelica as well as soprano soloist in Magnificat (J. S. Bach), Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven), Great c minor Mass (Mozart) and Te Deum (Dvorak). Dr. Allen has also regularly performed Requiems by Brahms, Fauré, Mozart, and Rutter, St. Matthew Passion (J. S. Bach), Messiah (Händel), Lord Nelson Mass (Haydn), Elijah (Mendelssohn), Carmina Burana (Orff), Exsultate, jubilate (Mozart), Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Barber), Sieben frühe Lieder (Berg) and the Wesendonck Lieder (Wagner). Opera and music theatre roles have included Blanche (Dialogues des carmélites), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni ), Madame Euterpova (Help, Help, The Globolinks!), Mimi (La Boheme - Puccini), the roles of Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors and Hänsel und Gretel, as well as Mother Superior in The Sound of Music (Rodgers and Hammerstein II).
Besides her performance career, Dr. Allen is a clinician, vocal and classroom instructor, conductor, and opera and music theatre director. Prior to beginning her teaching career at Fort Hays State University (Fall, 2011), she served on music faculties at Friends University, University of Wisconsin-Marshfield, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Washburn University where she has taught Music History, Vocal Diction, Vocal Literature, and Vocal Pedagogy/Technique. Her conducting/directing credits include Messiah, operas Amahl and the Night Visitors, Die Fledermaus, The Gallantry, The Mikado, Trouble in Tahiti; scenes from Cosi fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte and Le Nozze di Figaro, Falstaff, a recent abbreviated rendition of Carmen; and musicals A Grand Night for Singing, Calamity Jane, Carnival, Cinderella, My Fair Lady, and The Fantasticks.