BLAKE LIAHONA ALLEN, PhD is an internationally acclaimed composer and musician, celebrated for his award-winning compositions and arrangements performed by prestigious orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. His works have graced iconic venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and on Broadway. Allen hails from down in the West Texas town of El Paso and currently lives in New York City. 

 

Allen boasts three top-ten Billboard albums (INSOMNIA; the shards of an honor code junkie; Sonatas) and has collaborated with luminaries such as Kristin Chenoweth, Richard M. Sherman, Renée Fleming, Joel Grey, Chita Rivera, Tracy Thoms, Rebecca Luker, among others. His versatility spans engagements with New York City Ballet, several Broadway and off-Broadway productions, The New York Pops, and performances alongside The Who, The Eagles, Andrea Bocelli, Phillip Glass, Caroline Shaw, and Pink Martini.

 

Notable achievements include contributions to Emmy-nominated PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts, and composing scores for Apple TV's documentary Conversion, the award-winning Doris Dear’s Gurl Talk, and Shade: Queens of NYC. Allen's impact extends to his role as music director, arranger, and orchestrator, leading the record-breaking 2019 revival of the Sherman Brothers' musical Over Here! and curating the acclaimed and award-winning concert series An Evening With… Series. 

 

Allen's shows include the forthcoming three-act opera The Waves based on Viriginia Woolf's seminal book of the same name (Will Nunziata, lib.), INSOMNIA, the shards of an honor code junkie, Folk Wandering (Shaina Taub, Jacklyn Backhaus, lib.), Boston|Nebraksa, HOCKET, Kelly [1955], Farmyard Follies: The Moosical (Christopher Seeber, lib.), and Living the Dreamboat (Claire Tran, lib.). Allen is also currently adapting Kevin Brockmeier's O. Henry Prize-winning The Ceiling as well as Herman Hesse's Strange News from Another Star. 

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Further solidifying his influence, Allen has toured globally as music director, composer, and arranger for stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race. He holds a PhD in Performance and Composition from New York University, where his pioneering reductive analysis of György Ligeti’s Viola Sonata stands as a landmark in music scholarship.​​